#Cost cutting measures

[mtbcleadgenbuzz]

Small Business Survival Guide: Essential Strategies For Success

Small Business Survival Guide: Essential Strategies For Success Small businesses are the backbone of any economy, and they play a vital role in driving growth and development. However, starting a small business is not an easy task, and it takes more than just passion to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace. With limited resources and stiff competition from larger corporations, many small…

[oifaaa]

I love corporate hypocrisy had a all colleagues call today in which we were informed that we will not be going back to full time work from home as "It would be rude to disrupt our established routines" but in the next sentence we're informed we'd be going from 40% office attendance to 60%

[ceasarslegion]

Followers what do we think about the fact that i looked on my ticket and im flying on the same plane model that got boeing into their current mess in june twice

[spockvarietyhour]

was rewatching Trek V w @kiranerys and compared to VI, V barely puts any effort in redressing TNG sets (and some of those are they themselves repurposed from earlier movies). Usually I'll just point out the hallways,

which aside from hastily put on panels to cover the black LCARS screens and the change in turbolift cars, the rest is the same (no money to change signage on the door, carpeting,.....)

VI does a smart attempt by adding some overhead pipes and hatchways and a different lighting scheme to make it more claustrophobic.

(does it mesh with wider hallways of of wrath of khan? no. but it gets the job done).

Even the transporters get a decent redress with the blast shield and removal of the isolinear stack (and the 88-89 need for neon accents on everything)

(as covered here in more detail)

Anyhoo, all of this preamble to say that, since my childhood was watching these movies in 4:3 and V is the one I revisit the least, I didn't notice until this watch that when Scotty wakes up in Sickbay the okudgrams behind him are the TNG ones:

Something theatre audiences would see but not television ones as that would be entirely cropped out.

just hilarious that's all. Trek movies would continue to pass sets back and forth to each other as the movies kept going on but trek vi does a better job including the TNG sickbay:

(shhh it's dark so you can't tell we didn't change much and we have the right consoles above the biobeds)

The President's Ten Forward:

snazzy dark Conference room

(the glass hides the shape of the windows)

[prolibytherium]

I think there's plenty of ethical concerns re: AI art but most people criticizing it fundamentally don't understand how the image generation processes work and are imagining it as very literal 'theft', or are operating on kneejerk reactions about """""Real Art""""" that aren't fundamentally different than any other attempts to separate 'true art' from 'fake lazy art' throughout history, so the conversation is kind of doomed to be bad and annoying from the start

[curewimdy]

a lot of the writing decisions in Otona Precure make sense if you keep in mind that it was really made for an audience of like normie women in their 20s and 30s who watched Yes growing up and maybe have kids who watch the current seasons, not otaku who seek out the kids shows of their own volition and are invested in shipping and stuff like that. the end result still sucked though

[youngerfrankenstein]

Literally everything is made better with a Magical Girl transformation sequence actually.

[kdrama-movies-more]

[sapphia]

love how everyone on this website is like "the justice system's broken!" but they mean like, the US justice system. which is not a system that half of the userbase here actually live under

[gendzl]

I got another donation, over my goal..... gonna spring for the brand-name bandaids, I think.

[mckinlily]

Plot armor but it’s Bruce Wayne’s wealth.

Bruce is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce does not want to be one of the richest men in world.

He starts by implementing high starting salaries and full health care coverages for all levels at Wayne Enterprises. This in vastly improves retention and worker productivity, and WE profits soar. He increases PTO, grants generous parental and family leave, funds diversity initiatives, boosts salaries again. WE is ranked “#1 worker-friendly corporation”, and productively and profits soar again.

Ok, so clearly investing his workers isn’t the profit-destroying doomed strategy his peers claim it is. Bruce is going to keep doing it obviously (his next initiative is to ensure all part-time and contractors get the same benefits and pay as full time employees), but he is going to have to find a different way to dump his money.

But you know what else is supposed to be prohibitively expensive? Green and ethical initiatives. Yes, Bruce can do that. He creates and fund a 10 year plan to covert all Wayne facilities to renewable energy. He overhauls all factories to employ the best environmentally friendly practices and technologies. He cuts contracts with all suppliers that engage in unethical employment practices and pays for other to upgrade their equipment and facilities to meet WE’s new environmental and safety requirements. He spares no expense.

Yeah, Wayne Enterprises is so successful that they spin off an entire new business arm focused on helping other companies convert to environmentally friendly and safe practices like they did in an efficient, cost effective, successful way.

Admittedly, investing in his own company was probably never going to be the best way to get rid of his wealth. He slashes his own salary to a pittance (god knows he has more money than he could possibly know what to do with already) and keeps investing the profits back into the workers, and WE keeps responding with nearly terrifying success.

So WE is a no-go, and Bruce now has numerous angry billionaires on his back because they’ve been claiming all these measures he’s implementing are too expensive to justify for decades and they’re finding it a little hard to keep the wool over everyone’s eyes when Idiot Softheart Bruice Wayne has money spilling out his ears. BUT Bruce can invest in Gotham. That’ll go well, right?

Gotham’s infrastructure is the OSHA anti-Christ and even what little is up to code is constantly getting destroyed by Rogue attacks. Surely THAT will be a money sink.

Except the only non-corrupt employer in Gotham city is….Wayne Enterprises. Or contractors or companies or businesses that somehow, in some way or other, feed back to WE. Paying wholesale for improvement to Gotham’s infrastructure somehow increases WE’s profits.

Bruce funds a full system overhaul of Gotham hospital (it’s not his fault the best administrative system software is WE—he looked), he sets up foundations and trusts for shelters, free clinics, schools, meal plans, day care, literally anything he can think of.

Gotham continues to be a shithole. Bruce Wayne continues to be richer than god against his Batman-ingrained will.

Oh, and Bruice Wayne is no longer viewed as solely a spoiled idiot nepo baby. The public responds by investing in WE and anything else he owns, and stop doing this, please.

Bruce sets up a foundation to pay the college tuition of every Gotham citizen who applies. It’s so successful that within 10 years, donations from previous recipients more than cover incoming need, and Bruce can’t even donate to his own charity.

But by this time, Bruce has children. If he can’t get rid of his wealth, he can at least distribute it, right?

Except Dick Grayson absolutely refuses to receive any of his money, won’t touch his trust fund, and in fact has never been so successful and creative with his hacking skills as he is in dumping the money BACK on Bruce. Jason died and won’t legally resurrect to take his trust fund. Tim has his own inherited wealth, refuses to inherit more, and in fact happily joins forces with Dick to hack accounts and return whatever money he tries to give them. Cass has no concept of monetary wealth and gives him panicked, overwhelmed eyes whenever he so much as implies offering more than $100 at once. Damian is showing worrying signs of following in his precious Richard’s footsteps, and Babs barely allows him to fund tech for the Clocktower. At least Steph lets him pay for her tuition and uses his credit card to buy unholy amounts of Batburger. But that is hardly a drop in the ocean of Bruce’s wealth. And she won’t even accept a trust fund of only one million.

Jason wins for best-worst child though because he currently runs a very lucrative crime empire. And although he pours the vast, vast majority of his profits back into Crime Alley, whenever he gets a little too rich for his tastes, he dumps the money on Bruce. At this point, Bruce almost wishes he was being used for money laundering because then he’s at least not have the money.

So children—generous, kindhearted, stubborn till the day they die the little shits, children—are also out.

Bruce was funding the Justice League. But then finances were leaked, and the public had an outcry over one man holding so much sway over the world’s superheroes (nevermind Bruce is one of those superheroes—but the public can’t know that). So Bruce had to do some fancy PR trickery, concede to a policy of not receiving a majority of funds from one individual, and significantly decrease his contributions because no one could match his donations.

At his wits end, Bruce hires a team of accounts to search through every crinkle and crevice of tax law to find what loopholes or shortcuts can be avoided in order to pay his damn taxes to the MAX.

The results are horrifying. According to the strictest definition of the law, the government owes him money.

Bruce burns the report, buries any evidence as deeply as he can, and organizes a foundation to lobby for FAR higher taxation of the upper class.

All this, and Wayne Enterprises is happily chugging along, churning profit, expanding into new markets, growing in the stock market, and trying to force the credit and proportionate compensation on their increasingly horrified CEO.

Bruce Wayne is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce Wayne will never not be one of the richest men in the world.

But by GOD is he trying.

[barrymccaulkinem]

ppl seem to forget how many ppl are doing complete bullshit jobs that could be done away with and how much production is exceeding demand

if we did away with all that and workers took over the factories and canneries and all that we could keep them running and meeting real demand with each person never having to take more than two 4 hour shifts a week (and only during harvest season for the canneries) or something like that

[vidocqsociety]

Love that their pitch to visit Sacramento involves going literally anywhere else.

(Also, I love that this is pitched as a single fun-filled day, because... no? Just for the sake of clarity: Tahoe is two hours away from Sacramento, Napa is a little over an hour, and San Fransisco and the Pacific Ocean are nearly two hours away. That's a whole day's worth of driving. When do you do activities?)

[healthpolicymaven]

U.S. Healthcare Outcomes and State Initiatives to Lower Costs

Due to federal failure to enact meaningful healthcare reforms, this article reviews states that are making a difference. Three states which have taken steps to control the cost of healthcare without adversely impacting patient outcomes are Maryland, Montana, and Oregon and this article reviews what they have done. But before we get to that let’s review the current status of U.S. healthcare outcomes.

 Washington State’s 2022 report on evidence-based methods to control costs, increase equity, and improve industry transparency and regulation stated three truths that should shock the nation, if voters were only aware. Globally, U.S. healthcare continues to be the most expensive healthcare but health quality metrics continually show the results are not worth it. In 2019, the U.S. spent 16.8% of all gross national product (GNP) on healthcare. Norway, the top scoring nation for health outcomes spent 10.5%. How much longer are the American people going to have to listen to how more expensive their health care will be in a national healthcare system-clearly this is not the case. Here are the Commonwealth Funds 2021 findings for the latest metrics on global healthcare outcomes compared to the rest of industrialized nations: (Eric C. Schneider, 2021)

1.       U.S. ranks last in healthcare outcomes (we spend 60% more on healthcare than Norway, the top nation for outcomes)

2.       Highest infant mortality

3.       Lowest life expectancy

4.       Lowest rate of reduction in avoidable deaths (which is what healthcare is supposed to do)

5.       Last on access to care

6.       Last in administrative efficiency

7.       Last in health equity

8.       Second on measures of care process (we are tracking it all as the outcomes decline)

 The Commonwealth Fund has for years done an excellent job of finding methods to compare different healthcare systems and this latest report reviewed 71 measures for 2019 to arrive at its conclusions. Nations reviewed were: U.S., Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden, Canada, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand. Here are the metrics reviewed:

 Cost-U.S. Healthcare is 50% more expensive than other industrialized nations

Gross domestic product, which is essentially a measure of all goods services produced over a specific period of time for the country is a measure of wealth and how much of that wealth is spent on things, such as housing, education, and healthcare. It is one measure to assess a cost comparison for health systems which has been widely used. New Zealand spent the least on its healthcare, at 9.1% and one could argue that is a tiny nation and not comparable to the complexity of the U.S., but Australia, also spent 9.4%. For nations with larger populations, France spent 11.1% of its GNP on healthcare and Germany spent 11.7%.

 Infant Mortality-U.S. Deaths are 1.7 times higher than other industrialized nations

Infant mortality is a measure of babies who die and is a direct reflection on maternal child healthcare and access to care. In this forlorn measure, the U.S. has 5.7 deaths per infant birth, compared to the other nations, which ranged from 3.3 deaths per 1,000 infant births for wealthy Switzerland. All of the other European nations in the study had infant deaths less than 4 per 1,000 births.  

 Maternal Mortality-U.S. deaths are 5 times higher than other industrialized nations

The U.S. also has an abysmal maternal mortality rate, which is going to increase with the latest century rollback of women’s health in many states, which seek to outlaw termination of pregnancy for any reason. To be clear there were 17.4 American women who died as a result of childbirth per 100,00. This is more than twice the rate of France, which loses only 3.2 women. Even if you are math impaired that is five times the number of women who die from childbirth in the USA. Expect more to perish from ectopic pregnancies, hemorrhaging (bleeding out), cardiac conditions, and other preventable causes. In 2020, 24 women died from childbirth in the United States.

  In 2021, 32 women out of 100,000 died from childbirth, an astounding increase of 25% in preventable deaths. The Centers for Disease Control 2022 analysis found that 4 out of 5 pregnancy related deaths are preventable-80%. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022) This is an appalling statistic! The U.S. is ranked 55th for maternal mortality-a metric that clearly shows how little our females are valued.  U.S. legislators would rather a women die as a result of childbirth than alter a pregnancy. Current maternal mortality in the U.S. is equivalent to many less developed countries including: Mexico, Egypt, and much worse than Cuba (which has a national healthcare system). (Ritchie, 2023)  While evaluating healthcare outcomes for women more than a decade ago I was astounded to learn of the disparities in maternal mortality and the high rate of deaths for pregnant women in Washington D.C. is seared into my mind.[1] Seemingly people don’t want to believe how bad things are for pregnant women in the U.S. or they don’t care. It feels like people are looking away as they do for all of the people living in tents in every U.S. city.

 Life Expectancy-Americans pay more for their healthcare and don’t live as long

The Commonwealth metrics uses the number of years attained on average by nation as the measure of life expectancy. All of the top nations had average life expectancies beyond age 80, but Americans (83.1 years) can expect to live 2.5 years less than the rest. And only in the U.S. are there sharp differences based on race, mortality for black (74.9 years) and American Indian (73 years) populations are much worse than the average.

 Reduction of Avoidable Deaths-U.S. ranks the worst

The Commonwealth Fund 2021 Report on global health outcomes reviewed the reduction of avoidable deaths and Switzerland reduced avoidable deaths 25% five times the U.S. rate, which was only 5%. The next worst performer in this group of 11 nations was Germany which still reduced deaths by 13% This is another metric where the residents of the U.S. who are gouged and underserved for health care should be electing officials who are going to take action. Leaving it to the marketplace isn’t working.

 Administrative Efficiency-U.S. ranks the worst

Anyone who has had to obtain healthcare in the United States knows what a nightmare it is to find affordable insurance, obtain a clinician whom is accepting new patients, and choke down the copayments and excluded charges from anesthesiologists, labs, and other out-of-network care thrust upon you.

 We know what we must do to improve healthcare outcomes:

1.       Provide universal coverage to remove cost barriers to obtain health care-stop gearing health care investments just for wealthy suburbs

2.       Invest in primary health care systems-not money makers for huge hospital corporations

3.       Reduce administrative burdens on patients and clinicians-integrated health systems work best

4.       Invest in social services-nutrition, education, childcare, safety, housing, transportation

 State Actions to Control Healthcare Costs

 Capitation-fixing fees

Maryland enacted a regulatory body to control hospital costs in an all-payor-model and all hospitals must participate. Maryland received a CMS waiver to use this model instead of the DRG system adopted by most other states, which is highly inflationary. The agency reviews hospital rates and has the ultimate authority on approval of changes. This governing authority has not resulted in hospital closures or patient care, but it has produced the lowest hospital prices in the country. This model is a capitation model which has worked for Maryland which was launched in 2014.

 Linking fees to a multiple of Medicare Rates

Montana, through the leadership of Marilyn Bartlett pegged state employee healthcare costs to a percentage of Medicare rates and saved the state thirty million dollars. Even the Republicans in Montana appreciate a taxpayer savings. Barlett had to fight the deep pockets of the healthcare industry, to enact this contract provision, but she won. Prior to her administration, hospitals were charging the Montana State Employees Plan five times the Medicare rates. Barlett, a CPA, has taken her leadership skills on the road advising states and business coalitions on methods to control costs. (Walker, 2021)

 Payment caps and Reference based pricing

Oregon caps state employee health plan payments for 24 of its 62 hospitals, because of differing needs of rural hospitals, critical access hospitals (urban trauma centers), and hospitals that served 40% or more of Medicaid patients (low income). Oregon also plans to limit cost increases to 3.4% per member per year. (Rakotoniaina, 2021)

 Washington’s report concludes with four recommendations to reduce the costs of healthcare including: targeted price growth regulation, expanded transparency and cost-growth benchmarks, strengthened anti-trust enforcement and consumer protection, and improved drug affordability. At least, on the latter, the federal government did finally come out with some affordable insulin mandates. But what really needs to happen is for the government to be restored to the people, by overturning the Citizens United ruling allowing corporations to buy elections. Given the current makeup of the Supreme Court, who seem intent on settling their own scores versus representing the will of the people. This seems unlikely, given the lifetime appointments. However, administrative action to remove court members from hearing cases is valid does not mean they have to hear cases, it’s time to bring in the back bench of the federal courts.

 And this is the healthpolicymaven signing off encouraging you not to sign blanket releases when obtaining medical care, do stipulate that for which you agree and for which you decline. For example, if your hospital refuses to recognize your medical directive, find another one for your procedure.

 Roberta Winter is an independent health policy analyst and journalist, who has published this blog since 2007. In 2013 her guidebook to the U.S. healthcare system was published by Rowman and Littlefield.

 References     

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022,  September 19). Four in 5 pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are  preventable. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:  https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0919-pregnancy-related-deaths.html

Eric C. Schneider, A. S. (2021). Mirror Mirror  2021; Healthcare in the U.S. Compared to Other High Income Countries. The  Commonwealth Fund. Retrieved May 9, 2023, from  https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2021/aug/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly

Rakotoniaina, A. (2021, August 31). How Oregon is  Limiting Hospital Payments and Cost Growth for State Employee Health Plans.  Retrieved from National Academy For State Health Policy:  https://nashp.org/how-oregon-is-limiting-hospital-payments-and-cost-growth-for-state-employee-health-plans/

Ritchie, M. R. (2023, May 9). Maternal Deaths By  Country. Retrieved from Ourworldindata.org:  https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality#maternal-deaths-by-country

Walker, D. G. (2021, February 18). Montanas  Health Policy MVP Takes Her Playbook on the Road. Retrieved from Kaiser  Family Foundation Health News: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/montanas-health-policy-mvp-takes-her-playbook-on-the-road/

   [1]  https://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-U-S-Health-Care-Personal/dp/1442222972

[schooleymitchellbrianplain]

Website : https://g.co/kgs/oW5Tbw

Address : 225 Cedar Hill St Suite 200 D117, Marlborough, MA 01752

Phone : +1 508-266-5814

Brian Plain at Schooley Mitchell helps businesses reduce costs and increase profits through expert analysis of expenses and vendor negotiations. With over two decades of experience, they offer personalized solutions across multiple categories, including telecommunications, waste and recycling, insurance, and more. They also provide ongoing tracking and a risk-free guarantee. Contact them today to learn how they can help your business save money while improving efficiency.

[marzipanandminutiae]

The Met Used AI For Their New Costume Institute Exhibition And I'm Not Sure How I Feel About It.

breakdown:

How did they use AI? Was it in a capacity where they could have used human digital artists? The wording on the website makes it sound like they used both- whether anyone was put out of a potential job by it has a huge impact on how I feel about it. But that's not disclosed online

"We used AI and CGI to demonstrate how these fragile garments would move on a body!" you all will do ANYTHING but talk to real people who have lived experience of wearing similar clothing- many of whom are also museum professionals and historians! Historical Costumer and History Worker are not mutually exclusive! friendly reminder that Abby Cox and Nicole Rudolph and Cheyney McKnight and many others all work or have worked in this field professionally beyond the YouTube space, to say nothing of people like Ruth Goodman who do experiential archaeology fully outside of social media! -won't you like geez. I'd rather have a video of Nicole Rudolph spinning in a Worth replica you paid her to make and demonstrate than an AI holograph, personally

Any incursion of AI into the museum-space worries me deeply even though AI can't do my jobs within the field...for now. If we don't stand up for those first affected, we will all fall eventually, I feel. Even nonprofits aren't immune to cost-cutting measures, especially those that run on a shoestring budget as most of our orgs do.