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The “baby-boom” generation is poised for retirement. Yet the American states exhibit sharp inequalities in the public support they provide for nursing facility long-term care for the elderly, a form of health care that few Americans can afford to purchase privately. Further, remarkable disparities exist, both within and among states, in the quality of nursing facility care. We describe cross-state variation in Medicaid support for and the quality of nursing facility care, offer regression models that provisionally explain the sources of these inequalities, comment on the social implications of these disparities and recommend a solution.

This article examines the scope of change which is likely to be brought about in the American health care industry due to the emergence of capitated reimbursement systems. As we will see, the goals, the terminology, and the operations of hospitals in the United States will be greatly affected as the shift to capitation occurs. This article explores the underlying cause of the movement of hospitals toward capitation and examines the impact of capitation on hospital management practices.

Since 1939, with the introduction of television at the World Fair in New York City, the television business has gone through many changes from the introduction of color to multichannel offering through cable and satellite. Recent years have brought an accelerated pace of change driven in large by the proliferation of digital platforms. Change that is manifested in the way consumers view television. Technology adoption is more of an evolutionary process than a full-fledged revolution. As such, learnings from consumer adoption of interactive television can provide a footprint for other industries. An example is digital health that includes applications and platforms, which are applied toward improving healthcare delivery or the healthcare systems.

This chapter will provide a comparison between the television and health industries as they transition into the digital age. It juxtaposes learnings from changing business models and consumer adoption from both industries and offers a possible roadmap for other industries on the quest to engage and grow their consumer base in the digital age.

The construction industry has arrived at a crossroads of rapid technological progress. While it is foreseen that the advent of new construction technologies will disrupt the construction industry’s future, such disruptions often create the ideal environment for innovation. As poor payment practices continue to plague the construction industry, the advent of smart contracts has created an opportunity to rectify the inherent flaws in the mitigation of payment problems in traditional construction contracts. Given the intrinsic resistance of construction firms to such revolutionary changes, this study aims to understand the various factors influencing the adoption of smart contracts in the Singapore construction industry.

A mixed method was adopted involving quantifying respondents’ perceptions of the factors influencing smart contract adoption, and validation from a group of interviewees on the matter. Out of 461 registered quantity surveyor members contacted via the Singapore institute of surveyors and valuers website, 55 respondents took part in the survey. This is followed by semi-structured interviews to validate the survey results.

The findings indicate that construction firms have neither a significant knowledge of nor willingness to adopt smart contracts. A total of 29 institutional factors were also identified that significantly influence the adoption of smart contracts. The quantitative findings were further reinforced by qualitative interviews with five industry experts.

With recognition of and the successful formulation of the significant institutional drivers and barriers, the key findings of this study will be integral in driving the commercial adoption of smart contracts within the construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze recent regulations and proposed regulations issued by the US Department of Labor (DOL) that relate to the reporting of compensation paid to service providers to employee benefit plans.

The paper reviews the statutory provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), applicable DOL regulations as available in the Federal Register and certain public comments and a DOL FAQs document regarding the applicable regulations available on the DOL's web site. The paper also relies on observations of common market practice based on actual experience.

Recent DOL regulations – in particular those related to Form 5500 reporting and the “Necessary Services Exemption” – may significantly affect the reporting obligations of certain private investment fund sponsors with respect to their employee benefit plan investors. It shows that, although the scope of these regulations is understandable in the context of participant‐directed defined contribution plans, they may be less so in the context of defined benefit plans, which invest more frequently in private investment funds. There are some potential exceptions, on which private investment fund sponsors may be able to rely. Achieving compliance with the rules as drafted, however, may be time‐consuming and costly.

Private investment fund sponsors may wish to begin looking at their compensation and service provider arrangements in light of these regulations and consider how best to respond.

The paper contains two experienced ERISA practitioners' analysis of recent regulations on which relatively few stakeholders have seemed to focus to date.

This paper advances a research agenda for service researchers at the intersection of healthcare and information technologies to improve access to quality healthcare at affordable prices. The article reviews key trends to provide an agenda for research focusing on strategies, governance and management of key service processes.

This paper synthesizes literature in information systems, service management, marketing and healthcare operations to suggest a research agenda. The authors draw on frameworks such as the interpretive model of technology, technology acceptance model, assemblage theories and Baumol's cost disease to develop their arguments.

The paper situates strategy-related service management questions that service providers and consumers face in the context of emerging healthcare and technology trends. It also derives implications for governance choices and questions related to that.

The paper discusses service management challenges and concludes with an agenda for future research that touches on governance and service management issues.

This paper provides implications for healthcare service providers and policymakers to understand new trends in healthcare delivery, technologies and facilities management to meet evolving customer needs.

This paper provides implications for managing healthcare services that touch on many social and societal concerns.

This conceptual paper provides background and review of the work at the intersections of information systems, marketing and healthcare operations to draw implications for future research.

‘Even in the very few instances where the accused has intrusted his defender with a full confession of his crime, we hold it to be clear that he may still be lawfully defended. The guilt of which he may be conscious, and which he may have so disclosed, he has still a right to see distinctly proved upon him by legal evidence … Human beings are never to be run down like beasts of prey, without respect to the laws of the chase.’

Health care institutions in many Western countries have developed preoperative testing and assessment guidelines to improve surgical outcomes and reduce cost of surgical care. The aims of this chapter are to (1) summarize the literature on the effect of preoperative testing on clinical outcomes, efficiency, and cost; and (2) to compare preoperative testing guidelines developed in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

We reviewed the literature from 1975 to 2014 for studies and preoperative testing guidelines.

We identified 29 empirical studies and 8 country-specific guidelines for review. Most studies indicate that preoperative testing is overused and comes at a high cost. Guidelines are tied to payment only in one country studied. This is the most recent review of the literature on preoperative testing and assessment with a focus on quality of care, efficiency, and cost outcomes. In addition, this chapter provides an international comparison of preoperative guidelines.

Assistive technology (AT) is a tool to help people gain, maintain, or regain independence. AT funding options in the United States are varied. One fairly unique option is last-resort state funding, which is available in just a few states. In this case study, we explore the kinds of AT that were purchased from a state AT fund over a five-year period and for whom the AT was purchased. The case study followed a three-phase community-based participatory research process that included initial interviews with key stakeholders, compiling the data into a usable form, and follow-up interviews with key stakeholders to seek their analysis and opinions related to the data. Overall, patterns in the results were generally expected, or at least didn’t cause alarm. The data suggest that AT providers are becoming more proficient at finding ways to provide more devices and services to their clients, they are likely becoming increasingly effective at providing services to their clients without having to purchase them, they are successful in finding funding for the less expensive devices or are reusing devices that have already been purchased, and that community outreach programs are successful in increasing fund usage by ethnic minority populations. General implications of these findings are presented with the goal of improving functional outcomes for AT users.