cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16364128

> Hospitals adding charge to bills from doctors’ offices, outpatient surgical clinics and diagnostic centers they own > > Hospitals are gobbling up doctor’s offices – and they’re bringing higher prices to patients when they do, even if a patient never sets foot on a hospital campus. > > Enter the “hospital facility fee”: a charge hospitals can add to bills from doctors’ offices, outpatient surgical clinics and diagnostics centers that they own, rebranding them as “outpatient hospital departments”, even if the facility is miles from a hospital campus. > > “It’s one of the most egregious examples of hospital financing at the expense of consumers,” said Liz Hagan, director of policy solutions at the United States of Care, a non-profit advocacy group that released a new report on the practice. > > The report, “Behind the Bill” argues that “hospitals are at the center of a massive market failure”, where consolidation is driving price hikes for patients.

>Trey Parker and Matt Stone are to make a rare public appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival later this week. > >The South Park creators will participate in a conversation after the world premiere of documentary ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!. > >The event, which takes place on Friday June 7, will be hosted by Watch What Happens Live star Andy Cohen and will also feature director Arthur Bradford. > >The documentary, which comes from the producer of 6 Days to Air, tracks the rise, fall and revival of the beloved Colorado landmark Casa Bonita. > >Casa Bonita opened in 1974 in an unassuming strip mall. The massive “Disneyland of Mexican restaurants” is an Old West and Acapulco-inspired fever dream made famous by its indoor waterfall, cliff divers, and haunted caves. The restaurant was featured in a 2003 episode of South Park. When the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, learn that Casa Bonita might close its doors for good, they attempt to preserve a crumbling piece of their childhood and Denver history. Casa Bonita reopened in May 2023 to preview audiences. The restaurant has served over 150,000 guests since and plans to throw open its doors to the general public later this year. > >The doc comes from MTV Documentary Films and will launch on Paramount+ later this year. > >Bradford directs and Jennifer Ollman produces. Bradford and Keith Pizzi are executive producers

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> “Rather than just tossing in a coin and getting into the game immediately, you must click an icon, wait for the logo, wait for the title, look at the instructions screen, wait until everything loads, and then you’re finally at the main screen, after which you can start playing. > > “I want you to measure the total time this takes and shorten it by even one second.” > > To prove that he was serious about this, Sakurai then revealed that GameCube racing game Kirby Air Ride was originally supposed to have Dolby Surround audio, but Sakurai chose to ditch it because it would have meant showing the Dolby logo at the start of the game for a few seconds. > > “I feel very sorry for making the user wait,” he explained. “If you take one second from each user, that means you’ll be taking 10,000 seconds from 10,000 people. The more this repeats over the years, the more time you will cause players to lose.”

>Tesla might be dropping Steam support on some new deliveries of Model X, according to a message from the company shared by a Reddit user who is expecting to take delivery of the long-range version of the electric SUV. > >Tesla’s message alerts the customer that the company is “updating the gaming computer” in the Model X and says it’s “no longer capable of playing Steam games.” The message ends with a button for the customer to confirm they will proceed with the delivery. > >There’s no indication that other Tesla models will be affected. And we’re not seeing any signs that the automaker plans to remove Steam from current owners’ vehicles through a software update. However, Tesla’s already seems to be leaning toward dropping Steam support for some other models. > >Steam isn’t available in the Cybertruck, for example, and Tesla hasn’t said whether it plans on bringing the gaming platform to its bestselling Model Y and Model 3 vehicles, despite newer models sporting improved AMD Ryzen processors. The company has already removed some games over the years, including Sonic the Hedgehog. > >Tesla CEO Elon Musk had hyped Steam as a selling point, advertising the new GPU as powerful with the ability to play top-tier games like Cyberpunk 2077. Steam launched in a revised 2022 version of the redesigned Model S and Model X. Initial 2021 models were not installed with sufficient RAM to support the advertised games, so Steam was not included. Musk has said a retrofit would be available, but it’s not free. > >There’s speculation that Tesla might be backtracking on powerful gaming hardware in new Model S and X vehicles. Musk has been busy squeezing the company through hot-headed layoffs in an effort to make the company “absolutely hard core.” Tesla scaled back on what a new low-cost vehicle will look like and is going all in on building a robotaxi, which means games like The Witcher are no longer a priority.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15542273

> >Netflix has managed to annoy a good number of its users with an announcement about an upcoming update to its Windows 11 (and Windows 10) app: support for adverts and live events will be added, but the ability to download content is being taken away. > > >Netflix must realize that it's a huge frustration for people who relied on offline downloads to watch content without internet access: on planes, trains, and campsites, and anywhere else where Wi-Fi is unavailable or unreliable. > > >There's a small chance that Netflix will change its mind if it gets enough complaints, but the streaming service seems determined to add as many money-making features as possible, while taking away genuinely useful ones.