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.     

中国大中型造纸企业技术创新机制探讨

建立和健全大中型企业以技术创新为核心的技术进步的内在机制 ,保障提高技术创新的绩效是目前亟待解决的问题。本文根据 2 0 0 0年中国科技统计年鉴中的数据 ,对大中型造纸企业在技术创新方面存在的主要问题进行分析 ,就如何完善其动力机制和运行机制提出建议     

生态环境的恶化与乡村社会控制--以清代徽州的棚民活动为中心

从明后期开始进入徽州地区的外地棚民，利用当地丰富的自然资源，进行各种经济活动。在当时的社会条件制约下，此类经济活动耗费了大量的资源，破坏了徽州农村的生态环境，损害了地方和国家的利益。针对这一问题，清代徽州乡村社会各种民间力量和官方联合展开了一场声势浩大的驱禁棚民运动，取得了预期效果。     

混合拉曼/EDFA放大器及其在DWDM中的应用

本文综述了混合拉曼／掺饵光纤放大器（HFA）的工作原理，结构和特点，介绍了4类HFA基本结构及其实验结果，并通过介绍近年来各类HFA在密集波分复用（DWDM）系统中的应用表明了HFA在带宽，增益和噪声特性方面的优点。     

氧化微晶蜡生产的技术经济分析

简要介绍了微晶蜡氧化工艺及氧化微晶蜡产品特点，并对其进行了初步经济评价，同时对氧化微晶蜡下游产品如防锈蜡，乳化蜡及塑料润滑用蜡等进行了市场分析，最后给出了氧化微晶蜡下游产品生产的若干建议。     

企业竞争策略中的成本效益分析方法

企业每一项经营决策都应该进行成本效益分析，市场竞争中可以根据本企业的成本曲线和需求曲线，预测出竞争策略实施后对内部成本和外部需求可能产生的影响，从而计算出某项决策的经济效果。     

日本主银行制度演变的路径分析

日本主银行制度源于战前的银行体制和二战期间的“军需企业指定金融机关”制度。战后，日本金融体制基本被保留下来，在日本经济恢复和高速增长期，日本企业与银行通过相互持股紧密结合起来，形成了企业和银行相互促进、共同发展的良性循环．但是，在20世纪90年代日本泡沫经济崩溃以后，紧密的银企关系加剧了企业危机与银行危机的连锁反应，导致银行与企业相互羁绊的恶性循环．     

Why are Small Firms Different? Managers’ Views

Do incentives differ between large and small organizations? Results from a representative survey of compensation managers are used to shed light on the issues. I find that (i) small establishments rely less on pecuniary incentives, and have a significantly more hostile attitude towards incentive schemes based on competition and relative rewards; (ii) large units are more vulnerable to mechanisms of efficiency wages, effects that remain even after controlling for differences in monitoring ability; (iii) large units are more prone to indicate that negative reciprocity is important, and that their employees care about relative pay. I argue that these findings fit with behavioral stories of incentives and motivation, in particular those stressing group interaction effects, inequity aversion and gift exchange.     

Comparing the True Cost of Living Indices of Demographically Different Households

The comparison of true cost of living indices between demographically different households (relative equivalence scale) is argued to be sensitive to the way demographic characteristics enter demand analysis. In particular, parameters reflecting the cost of demographic characteristics at base prices, though themselves do not have welfare (equivalence scale) interpretation, can alter the benchmark from which demographically varying inflation effects are measured. The empirical analysis, based on a rank‐3 demand system applied to UK individual household data, shows that the inflation adjustment of child benefits can vary with the way demographic costs at base period prices are specified.