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Patients can make choices about which hospital they use based on many factors, including advertisements on billboards and signs on the back of city buses. While annual hospital rankings published in magazines like U.S. News & World Report and Consumer Reports offer conflicting advice on the best places to seek treatment, plain-and-simple geography can also matter. So do health insurance networks and recommendations from friends or physicians. “How does the consumer know which to believe?” said Dr. Todd Shuman, vice president and chief quality officer for Roper St. Francis Healthcare. “Should they believe this, or should they believe this? Or...

The phone rings. The caller says he's a rep from a government agency. "We need to verify some information to make sure you get the coverage you're entitled to under the Affordable Care Act," the caller says. You know big insurance changes are coming, but they’re not coming like this. **SNIP** “(The fake sites) may contain the actual seal of the real insurance exchanges, but likely simply exist to load malware onto your computer or collect your personal information,” said Emily Peters of Practice Fusion, a San Francisco-based electronic health records company.

MEPs have called on the European Commission to protect consumers’ privacy and personal data online by regulating the so-called “IP-tracking” systems of some commercial Internet sites, a move Brussels has so far abstained from but might be forced to reconsider given the mood in some member states. Holidaymakers looking for cheap flights abroad over the weekend may have noticed that on some websites, the prices tend to go up at each visit. One perfectly legal explanation is that there are fewer seats available. But that is not always the case. As French daily Le Monde’s consumers’ protection blog “SOS Conso”...

Whether or not you shop at Wal-Mart, you’ve already benefitted from the mega-retailer’s ceaseless efforts to cut prices. A 2005 study found that the nationwide expansion of the store had driven down everyone’s cost for food-at-home, commodities and overall consumer products. Competition among retailers drives down prices for all shoppers. Meanwhile, by one estimate, Wal-Mart saved consumers at its stores a quarter of a trillion dollars in 2006. And that was several dozen price cuts ago. But you need to live near one to benefit directly. And in our nation’s capital, many residents could be denied the opportunity to shop...

As the Department of Labor (DOL) celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act this year, the department is sponsoring a Smartphone app contest to help consumers identify businesses who treat "their workers fairly and lawfully." The DOL requests [emphasis added] that contestants: develop a smartphone application that will transform the way the public is able to use departmental enforcement data. By providing consumers with information at their fingertips about which businesses have treated their workers fairly and lawfully, the creator of this application will help empower consumers to make informed choices about where to bring their business....

Well America, it has continued to get piled higher and deeper. There was Benghazi – but wait, Congress doesn’t have time to fully investigate to find individuals responsible and hold them accountable; so, it’s swept under the rug. Congress can’t deal with Fast and Furious effectively; it goes the way of the dust on top of the door jamb: you know it’s there but can’t see it so forget about it. While the immigration bill, the Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and the racially charged Zimmerman case had the focus...

U.S. consumer sentiment retreated this month after reaching its highest in nearly six years in May, a survey released on Friday showed, as household optimism about employment and housing faded slightly. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment fell to 82.7 in June, below a near six-year high of 84.5 in May. Economists polled by Reuters had expected it to hold at 84.5 this month. June's reading, however, was the second highest in the last eight months, suggesting Americans were far from gloomy about their long-term prospects. While the barometer of current economic...

JPMORGAN: The 'Slowdown In Consumer Spending Has Arrived' Matthew BoeslerMarch 3, 2013TheRealMichaelMoore / Flickr Last week's release of personal spending data revealed that spending rose 0.2 percent in February, at the same pace as in January. When adjusted for inflation, though, the data are less encouraging. In a note to clients, JPMorgan economist Robert Mellman declares that the "consumer spending slowdown is here," saying consumers are beginning to feel the effects of the payroll tax cut expiry and rising gas prices. Mellman writes: Slowdown in consumer spending has arrived: The first-round effects of the tax increases should mainly affect consumer...

Washington — Consumers saved nearly $1.5 billion in 2011 as a result of rules in President Obama´s healthcare law that limit what insurance companies can spend on expenses unrelated to medical care, including profit, a new analysis shows. Much of those savings — an estimated $1.1 billion — came in rebates to consumers required because insurers had exceeded the required limits. The study by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund also suggests that the Affordable Care Act forced insurers to become more efficient by limiting their administrative expenses, a key goal of the 2010 law. In some cases, insurers passed savings...

First of all, I apologize for posting a vanity, but I have a serious question for the technology buffs on FRee Republic. Has anyone here had any experience with the scanner and OCR conversion software called NeatDesk? I am considering buying one of these digital filing devices, to clear the clutter, but I don't know how difficult it will be to actually produce reports for taxes, etc. from this device. How does it find dates, titles, and other data points from a scanned document, especially when they are all so different and the info is found in different places on...

While all eyes were on the Republican National Convention in Tampa and Hurricane Isaac on the Gulf Coast, the White House was quietly jacking up the price of automobiles and putting future drivers at risk. Yes, the same cast of fable-tellers who falsely accused GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney of murdering a steelworker's cancer-stricken wife is now directly imposing a draconian environmental regulation that will cost untold American lives. On Tuesday, the administration announced that it had finalized "historic" new fuel efficiency standards. (Everything's "historic" with these narcissists, isn't it?) President Obama took a break from his historic fundraising drives...

Democrats were riding high in the polls in 2006 and 2008, and one of their big issues was health care. Then, after passing the president's health care law, the politics shifted, and the issue helped sweep the GOP to victory in the 2010 midterm elections. A few months later, Republicans had a 14-point advantage in terms of voter trust on the health care issue. Then, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan introduced his health care plan, and the lead disappeared. Neither party has an advantage on the issue now. President Obama's plan is unpopular, and most want to see it repealed. Ryan's...

The annual Macy's 4th of July fireworks show in New York City provided the usual oohs and ahhs. But the pyrotechnics were quickly replaced by a dud of a June sales report from Macy's Thursday morning. Macy's (M) said that sales at stores open at least a year, the most widely watched measure of health in retailing, were up just 1.2% from a year ago. Analysts were expecting so-called same-store sales growth of 2.3% according to Briefing.com. But the tone of Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren makes the sales miss even more alarming. In a press release Thursday, Lundgren described the...

Shout Bits has argued that the Mortgage Interest Deduction is not so helpful to regular Americans, but with interest rates at historic lows, now is the time to eliminate this market distortion. Not only does the MID encourage buying unaffordable homes and promote market bubbles, the primary beneficiaries are wealthy individuals as large banks. Eliminating this deduction would actually help most ordinary homeowners. For 2012, a couple filing jointly can claim an $11,900 standard deduction, even if they have no otherwise deductible expenses like mortgage interest. Therefore, the first $11,900 in mortgage interest paid by such a couple generates no...

We have seen three very loud and very clear messages this week on the state of the US consumer's mind. After a few months of extravagance, on the back of what can only be described as depression-fatigue, reality is biting once again. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort index just missed expectations by its greatest amount in three years and has plunged over the last 5 weeks by the most in four years - dropping back to four-month lows. Do these two messages explain the catastrophe that is JCP's results this quarter? We suspect so as the outlook for the economy (sub-index)...

President Barack Obama has an ambitious plan for Washington bureaucrats to take command of the oceans—and with it control over much of the nation’s energy, fisheries, even recreation in a move described by lawmakers as the ultimate power grab to zone the seas. The massive undertaking also includes control over key inland waterways and rivers that reach hundreds of miles upstream, and began with little fanfare when Obama signed an executive order in 2010 to protect the aquatic environment. “This one to me could be the sleeping power grab that Americans will wake up to one day and wonder what...

The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid car that seems to have everything the rich and famous — and environmentally correct — look for in a set of wheels. Sleek silhouette? Check. Green cred? Check. Six-figure price tag? Check. Reliable battery? Not so fast. In a test conducted Wednesday by Consumer Reports magazine, the niche-market $107,850 sports car conked out completely, after a short ride at 65 miles per hour on a Connecticut test track. “Our Fisker Karma … is super sleek, high-tech — and now it’s broken,” Consumer Reports wrote on its website late Thursday. “We have owned our...

When Republicans suspended the 100-watt-light-bulb ban, they said they were trying to protect consumer choice. But they also managed to show how regulations help big business at the expense of the little guy.

Record numbers of Americans found themselves stuck in Black Friday mob scenes across the country. There were reports of shootings, pepper sprayings, riots and a lot of bad behavior. As FinancialCollapseBlog.com said, "Look what's happening when people are trying to save $20, can you imagine what it will be like when millions of people don't know where their next meal is coming from?" This orgy of consumerism seems to bring out the worst in people. Understanding why is beyond the scope of this report, however, it seems to be indicative of a larger problem that is confronting the country and...

...Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 1.1% last month, the Commerce Department said. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected an increase of 0.8%... Excluding the auto sector, sales rose 0.6%, but that was still higher than market expectations of a 0.4% increase...