Author: Vince Kimball

Industry brief: Pharmacy Benefit ManagersIf you have health insurance in the United States, you have probably run into the following problem: your doctor prescribes a drug, but your insurance company tells you it won't pay for it. You can, however, receive another drug that is judged to have similar properties. Sometimes the drug is a… Continue reading

Industry brief: Pharmacy Benefit Managers

If you have health insurance in the United States, you have probably run into the following problem: your doctor prescribes a drug, but your insurance company tells you it won't pay for it. You can, however, receive another drug that is judged to have similar properties. Sometimes the drug is a generic; sometimes it is just a different medicine from another major drug company. What drugs are accepted by your insurer is determined by what is called a formulary; the original drug was not included in the formulary.

In general, these formularies are determined by a set of companies called Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). These companies act as middlemen between drug companies

Power to the Edge:  A new book by Dave Alberts and Richard Hayes – open sourced in its entirety by CCRP.  This book is truly a must-read for anyone interested in decentralization and the social and organizational relevance of shifting power to the edge, whether in a commercial or a defense context.  As you read about… Continue reading Power to the Edge

Beyond File-Sharing, a Nation of Copiers. Like file-sharing, cutting and pasting from the Internet is just one part of a broader shift toward all copying, all the time. By John Leland. [New York Times: Technology]

The Smarter Lawyer. Gretta Rusanow, has written a new book: Knowledge Management and the Smarter Lawyer. Here are the table of contents and an excerpt. Gretta will launch the publication of her book with a presentation at the upcoming LegalTech NY conference. [credit for this post to: excited utterances] [credit… [Ernie The Attorney]

Seattle PI's Perplexing Question. On Friday, Seattle-Post Intelligence reporter Todd Bishop asked the question, “Should Microsoft be liable for bugs?” That's a very reasonable question to ask, considering recent, nasty viruses exploiting Windows vulnerabilities; not to mention what feels like an incessant barrage of security alerts and patches. Mr. Bishop does an excellent job of laying… Continue reading Seattle PI's Perplexing Question

Why Search Matters — How to Help People Find Their Way in t. Rob Reynolds: 'Searching is, perhaps, the most educational aspect related to Internet technology. It is also a great community builder. The key for all of us to remember that we are both “travelers” of the systems as well s information sources for… Continue reading Why Search Matters — How to Help People Find Their Way in t

North Chadderton School. North Chadderton School: 'Make no mistake, this wonderful phenomenon known as Open-Source, has enabled schools such as North Chadderton, to develop resources that would have taken years to put together, by traditional, html page-by-page, approach. It is now done by using a combination of  PHP scripting  and MySQL databases, again provided by… Continue reading North Chadderton School

Patients in Florida Lining Up for All That Medicare Covers. Boca Raton, researchers agree, is a case study of what happens when people are given free rein to have all the medical care they could imagine. By Gina Kolata. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Overseers Missed Big Picture as Failures Led to Blackout. While the two agencies charged with monitoring the grid were discussing the loss of two power lines, there were, in fact, eight lines down, and others headed for failure. By Eric Lipton, Richard Perez-pena and Matthew L. Wald. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]