U.S. officials today announced the largest healthcare fraud case in the nation’s history, indicting Dr. Jacques Roy, a Texas doctor, for allegedly bilking Medicare for nearly $375 million in phony billings. He is accused of bilking Medicare by recruiting homeless and other fake patients to sign for care that wasn’t provided.
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Jon Gertner is the author of the forthcoming “The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation.” Read more about Innovation and the Bell Labs Miracle: http://nyti.ms/wigq59
Latest step forward in bringing mobile payments to London 2012 Olympic Games
LONDON, Feb 24, 2012 (via BUSINESS WIRE) — Visa V +0.73% and Samsung today revealed the official mobile payments application of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Samsung and Visa will debut the mobile payment application at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain from February 27th to March 1st. The application will be demonstrated at Visa stand (Hall 1, Stand 1B19) and Samsung stand (Hall 8, Stand 8B169). This marks the first step to realising the partnership between the two Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsors to bring mobile contactless payments to London as part of their support of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The application is based on Visa’s payWave technology that enables contactless payments at the Point of Sale. To make payments, customers simply hold the phone in front of a contactless reader at the point of purchase. Purchases above 15 pounds require a passcode. The application also lets customers check their transaction history and view their up to date account balance. Backed by the multi-layered security and reliability of Visa’s processing platform, mobile contactless payments are protected by the same standard terms and conditions that apply to Visa cards.
"London 2012 is a unique opportunity to show the future of payments coming to life and leave a lasting legacy post-2012. The new mobile payment application is central to this showcase," said Sandra Alzetta, Head of Innovation at Visa Europe. "We are also working with a number of partners to put live mobile payment technology into consumer hands. We’ve recently announced the certification of a number of major manufacturer handsets for NFC payments, which brings mainstream commercial mobile payments a step closer to reality."
"Samsung is extremely thrilled to work with Visa to launch mobile payment services for the London 2012 Olympic Games. We believe that this showcase will motivate people to experience and adopt easy and safe payment through mobile devices. As a long-time Olympic partner and a mobile technology leader, Samsung is fully committed to providing our customers with reliable and convenient mobile experiences during the Olympic Games through our partnership with Visa," said DJ Lee, executive vice president and head of Sales and Marketing team of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business.
As a Worldwide Sponsor of the Olympic Games for more than 25 years and the Paralympic Games since 2002, Visa implements and manages the entire payment system infrastructure and network throughout all Games’ venues. For London 2012, there will be more than 3,000 contactless terminals installed across the Olympic and Paralympic venues showcasing prepaid, contactless payments, mobile technologies, and other innovations.
About Visa Europe
As a leader in the development and implementation of payments technologies, Visa Europe is at the forefront of contactless and mobile payment innovation in Europe.
Visa Europe is owned and operated by more than 3,700 European member banks and was incorporated in July 2004. In October 2007, Visa Europe became independent of the new global Visa Inc., with an exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual licence in Europe. As a dedicated European payment system it is able to respond quickly to the specific market needs of European banks and their customers – cardholders and retailers – and to meet the European Commission’s objective to create a true internal market for payments. For more information, visit www.visaeurope.com
China UnionPay, China’s national card network, soon may launch a mobile card-acceptance device similar to the one Square and other companies have launched in the U.S., according to media reports.
The only three true job interview questions are:
1. Can you do the job?
2. Will you love the job?
3. Can we tolerate working with you?
That’s it. Those three.
In partnership with Seattle’s Best Coffee, an independently operated brand within the Starbucks portfolio, Starbucks and Bellevue-based self-service kiosk vendor Coinstar have teamed up to test an automated coffee machine that accepts payment cards.
NetSpend Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: NTSP) announced it will be the “exclusive program and distribution manager and processor” for PayPal’s new PrePaid MasterCard product. The issuer for the new PayPal PrePaid MasterCard product is The Bancorp Bank, a subsidiary of publicly-traded Bancorp Inc.
On the credit card side, apparently no impact on the GE Capital-issued the PayPal credit card.
The Los Angeles Times reports today the American national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has rose above $3.50 a gallon on just three occasions, but it has never happened this early in the year. Analysts say it’s likely a sign that price at the pump will rise to some of the highest levels ever seen later this year.
"Early February crude oil prices are higher than they’ve ever been on similar calendar dates through the years, and the price of crude sets the standard for gasoline prices," Kloza said in the LA Times, later adding, "We’ve lost a number of refineries in the last six months [to permanent closure. Some of those refineries represented the key to a smooth spring transition from winter-to-spring gasoline."
Some cities, like Los Angeles and New York, are already closing in on $4 a gallon, said Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com.
Oil prices remained at historically high levels on Monday, rising $2.23 to $100.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s 18% higher over a year ago. In London, oil rose 48 cents to $117.79 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange.
Apple has requested to the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct special voluntary audits of its final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn’s factories in Shenzen and Chengdu, China. A special team of labor rights experts will be led by FLA president Auret van Heerden. Inspections started Monday at the Foxconn City factory in Shenzen. Other Apple suppliers, including Quanta and Pegatron, may undergo similar inspections in the spring. Apple has said more than 90 percent of Apple’s product assembly will be reviewed through the process.
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A new report just released by MarketResearch.com is predicting that approximately 46% of all mobile phones will be NFC-enabled by 2016. That’s up from just 5% in 2011.
