Month: August 2024

Enlarge / Prescription drugs are displayed at NYC Discount Pharmacy in Manhattan on July 23, 2024. (credit: Getty | Spencer Platt)

In the first round of direct price negotiations between Medicare and drug manufacturers, prices for 10 expensive and commonly used drugs saw price cuts between 38 percent to 79 percent compared to their 2023 list prices, the White House and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Thursday. The new negotiated prices will take effect on January 1, 2026.

The 10 drugs that were up for negotiations are used to treat various conditions, from diabetes, psoriasis, blood clots, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease to blood cancers. About 9 million people with Medicare use at least one of the drugs on the list. In 2023, the 10 drugs accounted for $56.2 billion in total Medicare spending, or about 20 percent of total gross spending by Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. But in 2018, spending on the 10 drugs was just about $20 billion, rising to 46 billion in 2022—a 134 percent rise. In 2022, Medicare enrollees collectively paid $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for these drugs.

The 10 drugs as well as their use, 2023 costs, negotiated prices, and savings. (credit: HHS)

For now, it's unclear how much the newly set prices will actually save those who have Medicare enrollees in 2026. Overall costs and out-of-pocket costs will depend on each member's coverage plans and other drug spending. Additionally, in 2025, Medicare Part D enrollees will have their out-of-pocket drug costs capped at $2,000, which alone could significantly lower costs for some beneficiaries before the negotiated prices take effect.

Enlarge / Diablo running in Firefox on macOS. (credit: Samuel Axon)

You can now play the original Diablo (and its expansion, Hellfire) in virtually any web browser on any computer with generally excellent performance and operating-as-expected controls. It's all thanks to an open source project published on GitHub called Diabloweb that's now being circulated by game developers on X.

In the README file in the project's GitHub repository, the project's developer (d07RiV) notes that it is based on DevilutionX, another open source project that did a lot of legwork to make Diablo run well on modern operating systems.

"I've modified the code to remove all dependencies and exposed the minimal required interface with JS, allowing the game to be compiled into WebAssembly," writes d07RiV. "Event handling (especially in the menus) had to be modified significantly to fit the JS model."

Enlarge / Kind of a weird image to post if you're trying to convince people you're not involved in a Half-Life ARG...

Here at Ars, we're always on the lookout for hints and actions that suggest the long, long wait for Half-Life 3 may eventually come to an end. So when users across the Internet started making note of the mysterious and intriguingly named BlackMesa.com recently, our ears perked up for signs of a new promotional alternate reality game (ARG).

Alas, this seems like yet another false alarm. BlackMesa.com is simply the website for Black Mesa, which confirmed in a public statement that it is "actually a real company in the Boston area... working hard to assure and secure vaccine and other biological manufacturing production."

HALF LIFE 3 MIGHT BE GETTING ANNOUNCED ON SEPTEMBER 30THhttps://t.co/hSytiq2GoR Just went live and it has a countdown at the bottom of the page, that ends on September 30th. When it finishes it will display a white text saying "That's it." pic.twitter.com/MK3QveRc6R

— PеQu (@ImPeQu) August 9, 2024

The BlackMesa.com domain name dates back to at least 2006, when the address was filled with search engine optimization ads by an outfit called MDNH, Inc. But in 2022, a page advertising the domain's availability for purchase was suddenly replaced by a mysterious logo that bears a striking resemblance to the fictional Black Mesa logo in the games. And then there's the hard-to-read cipher at the bottom, the kind of thing that an ARG might use to hide important information in plain sight.