Costs
How we’ve saved 98% in cloud costs by writing our own database
What is the first rule of programming? Maybe something like “do not repeat yourself” or “if it works, don’t touch it”? Or, how about “do not write your own database!”… That’s a good one. Databases are a nightmare to write, from Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) requirements to sharding to fault recovery to administration …
Generative AI and the Falling Costs of Art Creation
A woodcut depicting a step in the process of ancient Chinese papermaking. (1637) There has been much doom and gloom recently about generative AI, especially by workers that will be affected (or replaced entirely) by the proliferation of these tools. While this is no doubt a serious problem for creative professionals, it’s also worth looking …
How GitHub reduces costs with upgraded Codespaces
Over the past few weeks, we’ve rolled out a change to the virtual machines that host GitHub Codespaces to provide all of our users twice the RAM, and approximately 10-30% improved CPU performance after adopting Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)-based hosts. Now that this change has rolled out for all machine types, we wanted to share …
Ask HN: Have you heard of a private equity firm focused on cutting cloud costs?
Every once in a while I see posts discussing how ridiculously overpriced cloud providers are (e.g. the recent “How Ahrefs Saved US$400M in 3 Years by NOT Going to the Cloud” https://tech.ahrefs.com/how-ahrefs-saved-us-400m-in-3-years-by-not-going-to-the-cloud-8939dd930af8) As someone who works with AWS/Azure/GCP a lot I’ve always found these articles to be mostly overblown PR-seeking pieces, but self-hosting IS much …
EHRs don’t reduce costs for rural hospitals
by Claudia Rhoades, Brian Whitacre and Alison Davis Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are computer programs used by hospitals to collect information about patients, treatments, and outcomes. Some experts believe that EHRs can improve health care quality and reduce hospital costs by reducing errors, facilitating the flow of information, and allowing health professionals to do tasks …
Biden bill to help millions escape higher health care costs
WASHINGTON — Millions of people in the United States will be spared from big increases in health care costs next year after President Joe Biden signed legislation extending generous subsidies for those who buy plans through federal and state marketplaces. The sweeping climate, tax and health care bill sets aside $70 billion over the next three …
Whitmer Directs Health Insurance Companies to Help Lower Health Insurance Costs for Michiganders Under Inflation Reduction Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 18, 2022 Contact: [email protected] Gov. Whitmer Directs Health Insurance Companies to Help Lower Health Insurance Costs for Michiganders Under Inflation Reduction Act LANSING, Mich. — Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer sent a letter directing the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) to require Michigan health insurance companies to reduce …
Oregon health care costs rose 49% from 2013 to 2019, driven by prescription drug prices, OHA reports
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) – According to a new Oregon Health Authority report, health care costs grew 49% per person across insurance markets between 2013-2019 in Oregon, outpacing national health care cost growth during the same time period. By market, Medicare costs per person grew 58%, commercial market costs per person grew 45%, and Medicaid costs …
UnitedHealth lifts profit outlook as slow elective-care recovery cuts costs
July 15 (Reuters) – UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) on Friday raised its annual profit forecast for a second straight quarter, as a slow recovery in non-urgent medical procedures and lower COVID-care costs help it rein in medical expenses. Shares of the largest U.S. healthcare company by market value rose 4.5% in morning trade, providing the …
Must-pass health bills give Congress (another) chance to lower drug costs
These days, it seems like it would be hard to get the majority of Americans to agree about anything. Everywhere you look, it feels like the country is divided on nearly every subject, but there is one issue that unites us: lowering the cost of prescription drugs. Across partisan and ideological lines, Americans agree the …
