Violations of Service Fairness and Legal Ramifications: The Case of the Managed Care Industry

Adapted from Chan's (2000) model depicting success of litigation, this paper argues that with the application of various legislation, health maintenance organizations' (HMOs') violations of service fairness to each group: enrollees, physicians, and hospitals give rise to each group's lawsuits against the HMOs. Various authors (Bowen et al., 1999; Seiders and Berry, 1998) indicate that justice concepts such as distributive, procedural, and interactional justice can be applied to the area of service fairness. The violation of these underlying justice principles with HMOs' service unfairness to enrollees, physicians, and hospitals is examined. A general synopsis of the ethical issues in the managed care industry is provided. The various lawsuits launched by each group: enrollees, physicians, and hospitals together with the key statutes used are discussed. This paper also highlights the provisions and ramifications of the 11 April 2000 landmark agreement that Aetna made with Texas Attorney General John Cornyn to settle the 1998 lawsuit brought against the company. Lastly, the current ethical issues in the managed care industry are further discussed. The value of this paper can be adapted to the study of organizations' service fairness violations in other industries or in the educational, governmental, and not-for-profit sectors both nationally and internationally.     

超市寄包的法律思考

本文试图对商业流通企业中存在的两种寄存包行为的行为性质进行法律分析,并对此引起的法律责任,产生的法律后果作一理论上的探讨,以求正确界定它们,保护消费者与商业企业的合法权益。     

论中国旅游业的危机管理机制--以非典时期旅行社行业的救助与自救措施为例

非典给中国旅游业带来了强烈的冲击，作为旅游业的龙头，旅行社遭到了惨重的经济损失。在旅行社全行业处于极度萧条的时段内，政府出台了一系列的措施来扶持旅行社的发展，各旅行社也纷纷采取各种措施力图自救，无论是政府救助还是企业自救，在某种程度上都存在一定的不足之处。     

Agent技术在CRM中的应用研究

简单介绍了Agent的属性特点及CRM的相关知识，讨论了Agent技术在CRM中的应用，指出Agent技术能为企业更好地管理客户信息，增强其竞争力。     

强化政府引导服务功能 提高企业整体创新能力

怀化是一个欠发达的山区,要发展、壮大民营经济,提升民营科技企业整体创新能力,必须注重发挥科技部门职能作用,强化政府引导服务功能。     

信息服务模式及网络利用

当今的用户获取信息的渠道越来越广,这使得信息服务面临着多方面的竞争。对于从事信息服务的工作者而言,如何让信息真正有效地服务于各行各业和广大用户,以及依据什么因素来选择恰当的服务模式与推动模式的更新都是非常重要的。文章初步探讨了信息服务模式的变化,以及网络在信息服务中的利用。     

Optimality conditions¶and bubbles in sequential economies¶and bounded relative risk-aversion

We provide specific qualifications in order that Kuhn–Tucker type Euler equations and transversality conditions at infinity hold in stochastic equilibrium models with heterogeneous agents and where assets are traded in sequential markets. It is not assumed that uncertainty is modeled as an event-tree structure or that preferences are necessarily bounded. We also describe an important class of preferences based on bounded relative risk aversion which yields relevant simplifications. Our results are used to establish conditions that rule out asset pricing bubbles. Specific examples of economies with bubbles are also discussed. Received: 28 January 2002 / Accepted: 19 July 2002 We are grateful to the editor and an anonymous referee for their valuable comments. This research was partially supported by MURST (Italy), National Group on “Nonlinear Dynamics and Stochastic Models in Economics and Finance”.     

Analysis on effects of modern service industry to economy

This article analyzes the contribution of modern service industry to the economic development in six aspects： the modern service industry can promote economic growth, expand employment, promote economic restructuring, enhance the level of urbanization, improve people＇s standard of living and help enterprises to convert business ideas.     

论服务性企业的内部信息流管理——从服务质量管理角度

不同类型的服务性企业，其产品的种类、顾客化程度、顾客参与性程度和劳动密集程度等特征各有不同，但由于服务产品的某些共同特性，形成了企业内部信息流管理的共同规律。也决定了服务性企业内部信息流管理的必然性和特殊性。企业的信息流管理是企业加强顾客和企业之间以及企业各部门之间沟通的重要基石。掌握信息流管理原理，应对顾客意见，保持信息的容易获得性、流转顺畅性、对改变的自适应性和信息反馈机制，对不断提高服务质量、提高顾客满意度至关重要。