People living in the Gaza Strip have experienced a protracted political conflict and extreme socioeconomic adversity since 1948. Economic conditions have deteriorated markedly since the onset of the ...Palestinian Intifada in 1987 and have been exacerbated by the economic siege after 2006. The health system in the Gaza Strip has faced additional challenges. The aim of this study was to assess how Palestinian households in the Gaza Strip experienced health care services during this period of political turmoil, socioeconomic adversity, and challenges to health services.
Mixed methods research (MMR) was used. The quantitative part of the MMR involved the analysis of data from ten rounds of the Palestinian Expenditure and Consumption Survey from 1996 to 2011. This survey enabled the components of out-of-pocket health expenditures and their catastrophic and impoverishing effects across the years to be measured and traced in different groups of households. The occurrence of catastrophic out-of-pocket spending was calculated at thresholds of spending 10% or more of the households' resources and 40% of their capacity to pay (non-food expenditure) for health care. The qualitative component of MMR consisted of life histories reported via semi-structured in-depth interviews with heads of households aged 46 years or older to capture changes over time in their experience with health services. The interviews were analysed using thematic narrative analysis and timeline analysis. The results of the Palestinian Expenditure and Consumption Survey and the interviews were triangulated.
The occurrence of catastrophic out-of-pocket spending was stable, with no changes between 1996 and 2011. However, vulnerable groups tended to become less exposed to catastrophic out-of-pocket spending, especially after the major deterioration of the economic situation in the Gaza Strip after 2006. The ability to pay for health care, the nature of health conditions of the households, and the accessibility and entitlement to certain health services determined their choice of health providers and influenced their health-seeking behaviours. Additionally, households had used a wide range of coping mechanisms, including self-medications, decreasing the use of private health services, and relying on social capital. Interview respondents noticed the expansion of both public and private health services, but expressed their dissatisfaction with public services. The low financial cost of using public services is coupled with other costs such as increased waiting times, perceptions of indignity, and perceived low quality of services.
The findings are interpreted within the political history of the Gaza Strip and its health-care system during the last three decades. The reduced occurrence of health-care-related financial catastrophe and impoverishment in the more vulnerable groups in the Gaza Strip could point to an emerging paradox of resilience and high level of household and health-system adaptation, which should be investigated carefully.
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The rapid spread of large-scale and innovative social transfers in the developing world has made a key contribution to the significant reduction in global poverty over the last decade. Explaining how ...flagship anti-poverty programmes emerged, this book provides the first comprehensive account of the global growth of social assistance transfers in developing countries. Armando Barrientos begins by focusing on the ethical and conceptual foundations of social assistance, and he discusses the justifications for assisting those in poverty. He provides a primer on poverty analysis, and introduces readers to the theory of optimal transfers. He then shifts the focus to practice, and introduces a classification of social assistance programmes to help readers understand the diversity in approaches and design in developing countries. The book concludes with an analysis of the financing and politics of the emerging institutions and of their potential to address global poverty.
Examining the legal history of the order to pay money initiating a funds transfer, the author tracks basic principles of modern law to those that governed the payment order of Antiquity and the ...Middle Ages.
To evaluate the trend in nonresearch payments made by the industries to the infectious disease physicians in the United States since the launch of the Open Payments Database and during the COVID-19 ...pandemic.
Descriptive analysis was performed for the nonresearch payments made to all infectious disease physicians listed in the Open Payments Database between 2014 and 2020. Using the generalized estimating equation models with panel data of monthly and yearly payment per physician, the payment trend since the inception of the Open Payments Database and during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated.
A total of 7901 (81.5%) infectious disease physicians received $156 837 987 in nonresearch payments between 2014 and 2020. Median annual payments were $197 to $220. Monthly nonresearch per-physician payments and number of physicians with payments rapidly decreased by 58.6% (95% CI: 49.7%‒65.9%, p < 0.001) and by 54.4% (95% CI: 52.7%‒56.1%, p < 0.001) at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. However, the per-physician payments and number of physicians with payments slightly increased every month right after onset of the pandemic. Both per-physician payments and the number of physicians with payments decreased by 2.6% (95% CI: 0.45‒4.7, p 0.018) and 2.0% (95% CI: 1.6%‒2.4%, p < 0.001) since the inception of the Open Payments Database, respectively.
The nonresearch payments and number of infectious disease physicians accepting payments had decreased since the inception of the Open Payments Database. Furthermore, the non-research payments to infectious disease physicians suddenly decreased by more than half due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Are stock-financed takeovers opportunistic? Eckbo, B. Espen; Makaew, Tanakorn; Thorburn, Karin S.
Journal of financial economics,
06/2018, Letnik:
128, Številka:
3
Journal Article
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The more the target knows about the bidder, the more difficult is paying the target with overpriced bidder shares. Thus, when bidders are opportunistic, the fraction of stock in the deal payment will ...be lower for better informed targets. We test this intuitive prediction against the alternative that stock payments primarily reflect bidder concerns with target adverse selection, which implies a greater fraction of stock in the deal payment for better informed targets. Discriminating between these two mutually exclusive and nested predictions requires measures of target information about the bidder but not of market mispricing. We find that public bidders systematically use more stock in the payment when the target knows more about the bidder. Tests exploiting exogenous variation in bidder market-to-book ratios also fail to support bidder opportunism. Finally, greater potential competition from private bidders is associated with greater propensity for public bidders to pay in cash.
The global digital shift, recently accelerated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, requires that consumers have knowledge allowing them to navigate increasingly cashless markets safely and effectively. To ...enable valid and reliable measurement of such knowledge, we used data obtained from a random sample of adult Poles to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties and applicability of an original cashless payments knowledge scale (CPK scale). Our analyses based on Item Response Theory show that some evident subdomains exist within the CPK construct. The separate dimensions of the CPK merge into a coherent scale with solid psychometric properties. We find that the CPK score depends on the place of residence, education, and household size, and is positively related to safe cashless behavior. Our findings may have important implications for financial institutions as well as policymakers interested in segmenting consumers in terms of their financial knowledge, potential risks resulting from deficits in this knowledge, and enhancing financial literacy.
Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance Böhme, Rainer; Christin, Nicolas; Edelman, Benjamin ...
The Journal of economic perspectives,
04/2015, Letnik:
29, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Bitcoin is an online communication protocol that facilitates the use of a virtual currency, including electronic payments. Bitcoin's rules were designed by engineers with no apparent influence from ...lawyers or regulators. Bitcoin is built on a transaction log that is distributed across a network of participating computers. It includes mechanisms to reward honest participation, to bootstrap acceptance by early adopters, and to guard against concentrations of power. Bitcoin's design allows for irreversible transactions, a prescribed path of money creation over time, and a public transaction history. Anyone can create a Bitcoin account, without charge and without any centralized vetting procedure—or even a requirement to provide a real name. Collectively, these rules yield a system that is understood to be more flexible, more private, and less amenable to regulatory oversight than other forms of payment—though as we discuss, all these benefits face important limits. Bitcoin is of interest to economists as a virtual currency with potential to disrupt existing payment systems and perhaps even monetary systems. This article presents the platform's design principles and properties for a nontechnical audience; reviews its past, present, and future uses; and points out risks and regulatory issues as Bitcoin interacts with the conventional financial system and the real economy.
An insightful overview of health insurers and a guide to sustainability for provider organizations.Physicians experience ongoing frustrations in their relationships with health plans. Even as they ...struggle to keep up with accelerating clinical advances, they face daunting challenges from payers that are transitioning from traditional fee-for-service contracts to complex alternative payment models. In Health Plans Unmasked, Martin Lustick, MD, offers insights and guidance for those who face the herculean task of transforming their business practices to achieve financial stability while improving outcomes for their patients.By explaining both how and why insurance companies behave the way they do, Dr. Lustick helps providers avoid mistakes and take advantage of opportunities for success. He provides information on:• The evolution of health care financing in the United States• The nuts and bolts of health plan capabilities and the real motives of health plan administrators• Tips for successful contracting strategies • Alternative payment models and the promises of value-based careWith a career spanning five decades as a practicing pediatrician, chief operating officer of a medical group, chief medical officer of a hospital, and chief medical officer of a health plan, Dr. Lustick provides a straightforward guide to sustainability for provider organizations. Physicians, office managers, and anyone in a health-related field will benefit from his breaking down the role of health plans in our health care ecosystem.
Abstract Episode-based payment, commonly referred to as bundled payment, has emerged as a key component of U.S. health care payment reform. Bundled payments are appealing as they share the financial ...risk of treating patients between payers and providers, encouraging the delivery of cost-effective care. A closely watched example is the U.S. End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System, known as the ‘expanded ESRD bundle.’ In this paper we consider the expanded ESRD bundle 2 years after its implementation. First, we discuss emerging lessons, including how implementation has changed dialysis care with respect to the use of erythropoietin stimulating agents, how implementation has led to an increase in the use of home-based peritoneal dialysis, and how it may have contributed to the market consolidation of dialysis providers. Second, we use the expanded ESRD bundle to illustrate the importance of accounting for stakeholder input and staging policy implementation. Third, we highlight the need to consider system-wide consequences of implementing bundled payment policies. Fourth, we suggest how bundled payments may create research opportunities. Bundled payment policies offer opportunities and challenges. Their success will be determined not only by impacts on cost containment, but also to the extent they encourage high quality care.
This paper provides one explanation why cash is still used for transactions despite a broad diffusion of noncash payment instruments. In particular, we argue that a distinctive feature of cash—a ...glance into one's pocket gives a signal of the remaining budget and past expenses—provides utility to some consumers. Using payment survey data, we show that consumers who need to keep control over their remaining liquidity and who have elevated costs of information processing conduct a larger percentage of payments using cash, withdraw less often, and hold larger cash balances than other consumers.
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