income
California tax scheme
This is really off-topic, but … “Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners — holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear,” says the Los Angeles Times , going on »»» Technically, it’s not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers’ annual tax bills won’t change. Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You’ll be repaid any extra withholding in April.
Continue reading »Medical Records: Stored in the Cloud, Sold on the Open Market
When patients visit a physician or hospital, they know that anyone involved in providing their health care can lawfully access their medical records. But unknown to patients, an increasing number of outside vendors that manage electronic health records also have access to that data, and are reselling the information as a commodity. The revelation comes in a recent New York Times article about how so-called “scrubbed” patient data isn’t as anonymous as people think .
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