#pbm — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #pbm, aggregated by home.social.
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Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport - Zandery, Suriname
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Adolf_Pengel_International_Airport
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/5.452830/-55.187801#SMJP #PBM #Zandery #Suriname #airport #aviation #avgeeks #GIS
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I'd almost completely forgotten about the existence of "Play By Mail" games, but apparently they were big enough to warrant as much coverage as consoles. The "It's a Crime" ad feels like it was everywhere in the late 80s. And Wayne might be the most 80s dude imaginable.
I seem to remember being deeply intrigued by them. But then I got in with a DnD/Warhammer group and probably saved myself a tonne of money in postage.
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“Some experts worry this means the next public health emergency could send the country right back to March 2020.”
“Covid is already a lesson from a different era”
Hoe staan wij ervoor in Europa?
#PPE
#PBM
#Afhankelijkheidhttps://www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025/08/12/pandemic-efforts-us-mostly-imports-ppe
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Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport - Zandery, Suriname
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Adolf_Pengel_International_Airport
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/5.452830/-55.187801#SMJP #PBM #Zandery #Suriname #airport #aviation #avgeeks #GIS
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I saw only part of the #ModernMedicalMafia documentary. When they described how PBMs (pharmacy benefits managers) worked, I could see it was an example of #ChokepointCapitalism. It’s been pulled from #Amazon and #Vimeo, but it’s still on #YouTube. #PBM
People have died because they could no longer afford their medications, or they have to choose between rent and food and medication.
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En Garde!
Subtitle:
Being in the Main a Game of the Life and Times of a Gentleman Adventurer and his Several Companions
I was woefully ignorant about En Garde! (mind the exclamation mark) until recently, when I tried to investigate why this roleplaying game seems so popular for play-by-mail games, despite being mostly forgotten in normal tabletop RPG circles.
It’s to the point that Margam Evans currently publishes the 4th edition of the game, which is nearly unchanged from the 2nd edition from 1977, which itself was not such a leap from the 1st that came out in 1975.
Yes, this is one of the earliest published role-playing games after the original White Box came out, and it came out in the same year as Tunnels and Trolls, making it likely the third or fourth published rpg. And yet barely anyone talks about it.
When people writing about the history of the hobby write about it it will get a mention, and then not be discussed anymore. And the reason I think is quite simple: it is very much still a wargame, albeit one focused on single characters, and with a weirdly abstracted approach to actual war, and people noticed quickly that playing it at the table was not the best way to use the rules. En Garde! instead has been a mainstay of postal games (that is turn-based play by mail or play by post gaming) since it’s inception.
Now, other roleplaying games of the time dabbled in this as well. Dungeons and Dragons had postal games running, and a multitude of paid dungeon crawler games tried to bring the experience of DnD to people with no other local players available. Tunnels and Trolls was conceptualized as suited for postal games. En Garde! Likely came by it more by coincidence. It originally started as a system for sword duels, which did not actually use dice all that much*, instead accepting programmed written orders for the duel.
Fascinating as this was, a small roleplaying system was attached to it that gave a reason WHY any two presumably reasonable gentlemen on the streets of 17th ct. Paris might want to duel themselves. One might meet the other party on one’s mistresses’ doorstep for example. Or be treated a bit too familiar by someone with too low a station. Or be in a regiment the other onr considers an enemy.
In any case, raison!
Soon enough it turned out that the tacked on roleplaying system that was supposed to supplement the duelling game was much more enjoyable than the duels themselves. It concerned swashbuckling, carousing, womanizing gentlemen in 17th century France, roughly in the vein of the Three Musketeers (especially the 1973 Richard Lester film which still was in everyone’s memories).
Characters in En Garde! are gentlemen, but they are always trying to increase their social status. They do this in a variety of ways, from openly carousing expensive spirits (showing they have the money to do that), toadying to other characters (getting some of that reflected glory), up to enjoying female companionship. It’s never defined what you actually are DOING with with that female companion, important is only you are seen with a female companion.
Yes, the answer is likely sex, but the way the rules float around that issue you might just visit a very dedicated embroidery circle together. Especially as I don’t think it’s ever established one can only play men, just that female companionship is necessary.
In any case the important part of the game is being seen doing stuff that shows your character is wealthy, rich, and manly. You’re the sword-wielding It girl of Paris.
Every once in a while characters will come across one another in complicated situations, and demand satisfaction.
All of that ideally is being recorded and transmitted to the other players somehow. The rules do not actually specifiy how, but the main way as established is by society papers. And that’s basically where the roleplaying happens. At the end of every round the referee puts together a gossip sheet of rumors, statements, duel results, and messages between characters. Most established campaigns identify themselves via the name of their respective gossip rag. The Paris Tribune for example, or Les Petites Bêtes Soyeuses. The latter actually is an ongoing and paid continuation of a campaign that has run since 1986, and the GM went and bought the rights to En Garde! when the last publisher folded.
There are a few running games, although it definitely doesn’t seem to have the clout DnD or Tunnels and Trolls has. The website has a list, and you might notice that not all the games are set in 17th ct. France. Different DMs often use variations on the rules, or set the game somewhere else, from 18th ct. London to Glorantha or Mars.
They also use some other variations. A character might e.g. join the Church and rise in power there, marry, run a business, or any other sort of shenanigans.
I have been thinking of integrating this with my current DnD/LL game. Outside of the name (Brillon) and a few other tidbits, nothing about the capital of the kingdom my campaign is set in really was established. I think one easily could have a game where characters in an En Garde game would be sent to “the Borderlands” and have to deal with local issues. In fact, the Castellan of Burg Aberwacht (as well as the bailiff and the curate) might be appointments given to characters going “on
The main issue is that combat skill is rather different between both systems, meaning it might not map to one another 1 to 1.
Oh, and I either have to raise the tech level of Aberwacht, or drop the one for the En Garde part. After all En Garde is based on the Three MUSKETeers.
Have to think about it.
Footnote:
*A survey of the rules shows there is a single mention of random dice-based determination of things in the main rules.
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#AOC calls #ElonMusk out over messing up #PBM reform
#video #classwar #usa #america #antielonmusk #fascism #capitalism #statism #oppression #repression #ausgov #politas
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Mój świeży singiel właśnie wylądował wszędzie, ale przede wszystkim zapraszam do słuchania i ściągania na bandcampie ☺️
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"Gleevec, used to treat cancer, was marked up 5232% in commercial markets and the drug Adcirca, used to treat pulmonary hypertension, from 'an average of $27 in 2022' to '$2,106, on average, for a 30-day supply of the medication...an average markup of over 7,700 percent.'"
https://www.psca.org/news/psca-news/2025/1/ftc-finds-pbms-massively-mark-up-prices-of-key-drugs/
#UnitedHealth #healthcare #healthinsurance #insurance #ACA #PBM #FTC #pricegouging #brianthompson #bigpharma
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PBMs made billions marking up specialty drugs by more than 1,000 percent: FTC
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5085119-ftc-report-pharmacy-benefit-managers/#pbm #pbms #PBMreform #cigna #unitedhealth #prescriptions #pharmacybenefitmanagers #cvs #caremark #ushealthcarecosts #ushealthcare #healthinsurance
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Plant-based Burgers May Depress You. #plantbasedmeats #pbm #vegetarian #ultraprocessed
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEne0YfsmK4/ -
#Warren, #Hawley join forces for #USSenate bill to force health #insurers to sell off #pharmacies, #PBMs
#healthcare #healthinsurance #insurancereform #PBM #affordablehealthcare #corporategreed
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For a second, I thought Bob Herman (#BobHive rise up!!) was writing a book 👀
next best thing: $100 gift card for 📚
if👏u👏luv👏healthcare, you simply must read Bob's newsletter for @STAT where he follows the money in #healthcare
Leave your referral # in the comments for more chances to win, I guess! (mine's 488871361 🙃)
https://www.statnews.com/health-care-inc-referral-campaign/#health #healthcare #healthinsurance #hospitals #PBM #medicine
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An interesting report from our Federal Trade Commission #FTC, one of our oversight commission that the #conservative want to destroy,
covering the price of drugs in the US. Have you ever hear of a Pharmacy Benefit Managers #PBM ; yea neither had I. A good review here. Its not what you might think based on the name.and the actual report.
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/pharmacy-benefit-managers-staff-report.pdf
#healthcare #medicine #drugs #bigCorp
#democracy is more than how we vote! -
Drug middlemen inflate US prices, squeeze out competition, FTC says - Enlarge / Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), test... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=2036032 #pharmacybenefitmanagers #expressscripts #cvscaremark #drugpricing #healthcare #science #health #policy #cvs #ftc #pbm
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best #healthcare in the world, they says...
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Even the #WSJ admits it: Mail order delivery of prescriptions was supposed to lower consumer prices, but drugs delivered by mail are costing multiples more than those picked up at a store counter.
The US doesn't have #healthcare, we have a health industry.
#Greed #PBM #HealthcareIsAHumanRight #HealthcareReform #HCR4US #OnePayerStateshttps://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/higher-drug-costs-mail-order-prescription-bf37886f
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from #NewYorkTimes [expires in 30 days]
The Opaque Industry Secretly Inflating Prices for #PrescriptionDrugs#PharmacyBenefitManagers are driving up drug costs for millions of people, employers and the government.
#PBM #HealthCareIsAHumanRight
#HumanNeedsBeforeProfits
#healthcare #pharmacy #BigPharma
#MedicareForAll #DrugPriceControls
#medicine #news #press #USPolitics -
Exclusive: #Elevance's #PBM president quietly separates from the company amid customer complaints of receiving wrong medications.
The wave of complaints coincide with the launch of two new #pharmacy services at #CarelonRx.
Latest @STAT :
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This is "the big one," @STAT's Bob Herman tells us.
An employee is suing J&J for overpaying for its employees' prescriptions—to the tune of $10,000 for a $30 drug—and taking the excess out of paychecks.
A STAT investigation found that consultants & PBMs are in cahoots (and not in a good way), meaning J&J's consultant & PBM might get pulled into the lawsuit, opening the door for an industry-wide precedent.
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A PBM in Africa flips the industry’s script in a bid to make people healthier
via @STAT
