Author: KnowledgeHippo
Major health insurance companies are partnering with a little-known data company to boost their profits, often at the expense of patients and doctors, according to a New York Times investigation. A private equity-backed company called MultiPlan has helped boost upfront payments to medical providers and increase patient bills while earning billions of dollars in fees for itself and insurers.To investigate this hidden aspect of the health care industry, The Times interviewed more than 100 patients, doctors, billing experts, health plan consultants and former MultiPlan employees and reviewed more than 50,000 pages of documents, including confidential files released by two federal…
There’s just something about a lager at sunset.As we headed for Pate Island on the dhow, the traditional sailing boat ubiquitous on the East African coast, the captain opened my Tusker, a Kenyan beer, and passed around beef and vegetarian samosas. I looked back at big overstuffed white pillows, ate the savory treats and thought that life was always better with a sunset.Just half an hour earlier at Manda Bay, the elegant rustic resort on Manda Island where we were staying, I had put on the colorful plaid kikoy wrap I’d bought the day before and my partner had put…
Students from Colby College helped harvest ice from a lake for a new mikvah, or ritual bath, at a synagogue in Waterville.WHY ARE WE HERE?We explore how America defines itself one place at a time. When a synagogue in Maine needed water for a ritual Jewish bath, he drew it from a suitable natural spring, with the help of some friends.With Jenna RussellPictures from Tristan SpinskyReporting from Waterville and Strong, MaineApril 6, 2024Standing on a frozen pond in western Maine on a Sunday morning last month, wearing LL Bean boots and a hoodie, Rabbi Rachel Isaacs paused to dedicate the…
The race for AI leadership has become a desperate hunt for the digital data needed to advance the technology. To get that data, tech companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta have cut corners, ignored company policies and discussed bending the law, according to a New York Times investigation.At Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, executives, lawyers and engineers last year discussed buying the publishing house Simon & Schuster to acquire major projects, according to tapes of internal meetings obtained by The Times. They also discussed collecting copyrighted data from all over the Internet, even if it meant facing lawsuits. Licensing…
OpenAI, Google, and other tech companies train their chatbots with massive amounts of data drawn from books, Wikipedia articles, news, and other online sources. But in the future, they hope to use something called synthetic data.This is because tech companies may exhaust the high-quality text the Internet has to offer for AI development. And the companies face copyright lawsuits from writers, news organizations and computer programmers for using their works without permission. (In one such lawsuit, the New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft.)Synthetic data, they believe, will help reduce copyright issues and boost the supply of educational materials needed…
Historically speaking, it’s not a bad time to be a teenager’s liver. Or the lungs.Regular use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs among high school students has been on a long downward trend.In 2023, 46 percent of seniors said they had one drink in the year before being interviewed. That’s a steep drop from 88 percent in 1979, when the behavior peaked, according to the annual Watch the Future survey, a closely watched national poll on youth substance use. A similar downward trend was observed among eighth and 10th graders for all three age groups in terms of smoking. In 2023,…
Japan’s public transport is known for its punctuality, efficiency and high-quality service, which means train travel is a great way to see the countryside and experience Japanese culture — even if you’re crammed into the Tokyo’s busy Yamanote line at rush hour or experience the popular Shinkansen high-speed train.But many savvy visitors cross the country another way, using luxury trains that look like five-star hotels on rails.Luxury train travel is for “someone who wants slow travel, an experience of excellent service in a confined environment, the best food, the most exquisite accommodations with private bathrooms,” Simon Pielow, co-founder of the…
Viktor Savvinov had already been jailed multiple times for various crimes – including robbery, car theft and assault – when he murdered a female drinking partner during an argument in 2020, stabbing her in the chest with four knives.A court in Russia’s Yakutia region of Siberia sentenced him to 11 years in a maximum security prison. So when recruiters from Wagner’s private mercenary group offered him freedom and a clean slate if he deployed to fight in Ukraine, Mr. Savvinov, a morgue regular, jumped at the chance.By February, Mr Savvinov had completed his service and returned to his home village…
When Vice President Kamala Harris greeted Dick Barnett on Friday, he was brief in his response.”After all.”At last, six surviving members of Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University in Nashville visited the White House, the culmination of a decades-long effort, led by Mr. Barnett, for recognition.The Tennessee A&I Tigers were the first team from a historically black college or university to win any national championship and the first college team to win three championships back-to-back, in 1957, 1958 and 1959. Former teammates — Mr. .Barnett , George Finley, Ernest Jones, Henry Carlton, Robert Clark and Ron Hamilton — attended a…
Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen hit out at her Chinese counterpart over China’s growing exports of cheap electric vehicles and other green energy goods, saying they pose a threat to American jobs and urged Beijing to scale back its industrial strategy, she said. US government.Ms. Yellen also warned her counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, that Chinese companies could face “significant consequences” if they provided material support to Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to a Treasury summary published Saturday on the two-day talks in the southern city of Guangzhou.The meetings on Friday and Saturday were an attempt by the world’s two…