Method to Foster Intelligent Processes Automation into an Organization

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThe present dissertation introduces a framework for process automation with the purpose of making them intelligent, in order to increase consistency, optimize execution-time and free workers from low value-added tasks. Foster Intelligent Processes Automation into an Organization is a topic that remains underdeveloped today. Being a relatively recent topic, intelligent process automation may be known as an extension of automated processes “on steroids”. The main objective of this project is to propose a method to find and promote Intelligent Automation to a target process, providing a walkthrough guideline, so organizations can identify, assess, and design a process of converting current processes into intelligent automated processes. In order to evaluate the proposed framework, a case study is presented, and a set of interviews was carried out with two groups: an academic group and a group of agents who manage processes in an organization

Taking a Byte Out of Corruption: A Data Analytic Framework for Cities to Fight Fraud, Cut Costs, and Promote Integrity

In recent years, the emerging science of data analytics has equipped law enforcement agencies and urban policymakers with game-changing tools. Many leaders and thinkers in the public integrity community believe such innovations could prove equally transformational for the fight against public corruption. However, corruption control presents unique challenges that must be addressed before city watchdog agencies can harness the power of big data. City governments need to improve data collection and management practices and develop new models to leverage available data to better monitor corruption risks. To bridge this gap and pave the way for a potential data breakthrough in anti-corruption oversight, the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (CAPI), with the support of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, convened an expert working group of leading practitioners, scholars, engineers, and civil society members to identify key issues, obstacles, and knowledge gaps, and map a path forward in this promising area. CAPI supplemented the deliberations of this working group with further research and more than forty field interviews in New York and Chicago

Defense Travel System: Implementation Challenges Remain

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1995, the Department of Defense (DOD) began an effort to implement a standard departmentwide travel system--the Defense Travel System (DTS). GAO has made numerous recommendations aimed at improving DOD management, oversight, and implementation of DTS. GAO was asked to (1) assess the actions DOD has taken to implement GAO's prior recommendations; (2) determine the actions DOD has taken to standardize and streamline its travel rules and processes; (3) determine if DOD has identified its legacy travel systems, their operating costs, and which of these systems will be eliminated; and (4) report on DOD's costs to process travel vouchers manually and electronically. To address these objectives, GAO (1) obtained and analyzed relevant travel policies and procedures, and documents related to the operation of DTS and (2) interviewed appropriate DOD and contractor personnel.

Resources-Events-Agents Design Theory: A Revolutionary Approach to Enterprise System Design

Enterprise systems typically include constructs such as ledgers and journals with debit and credit entries as central pillars of the systems’ architecture due in part to accountants and auditors who demand those constructs. At best, structuring systems with such constructs as base objects results in the storing the same data at multiple levels of aggregation, which creates inefficiencies in the database. At worst, basing systems on such constructs destroys details that are unnecessary for accounting but that may facilitate decision making by other enterprise functional areas. McCarthy (1982) proposed the resources-events-agents (REA) framework as an alternative structure for a shared data environment more than thirty years ago, and scholars have further developed it such that it is now a robust design theory. Despite this legacy, the broad IS community has not widely researched REA. In this paper, we discuss REA’s genesis and primary constructs, provide a history of REA research, discuss REA’s impact on practice, and speculate as to what the future may hold for REA-based enterprise systems. We invite IS researchers to consider integrating REA constructs with other theories and various emerging technologies to help advance the future of information systems and business research

A Public Option for Employer Health Plans

Following the 2020 presidential election, health care reform discussions have centered on two competing proposals: Medicare for All and an individual public option (“Medicare for all who want it”). Interestingly, these two proposals take starkly different approaches to employer-provided health coverage, long the bedrock of the U.S. health care system and the stumbling block to many prior reform efforts. Medicare for All abolishes employer-provided coverage, while an individual public option leaves it untouched.This Article proposes a novel solution that finds a middle ground between these two extremes: an employer public option. In contrast to the more familiar public option proposal, which would offer government sponsored health insurance directly to individuals, our plan creates a public option for employers, who can select a public plan—based on Medicare and altered to meet the needs of working populations—instead of a private health plan for their employees. Employer-based private health coverage is in decline and increasingly leaves workers vulnerable. Our proposal offers a gradual way to loosen reliance on this system.We review the policy, regulatory, fiscal, and business arguments in favor of this form of public option, which we argue is less disruptive than Medicare for All but more impactful than an individual public option. Because employer take up would be gradual and voluntary, our plan has lower fiscal costs and should face less resistance from employees and vested interests than Medicare for All. Over time, if the plan meets employers’ and employees’ needs, more people would be covered by a public option, moving away from over-reliance on private employer plans and toward something akin to Medicare-for-Many in a less politically, legally, and fiscally fraught way

Learning from variations in institutions and politics: the case of social health insurance in France and Japan

Despite their similar theoretical model, social health insurance schemes are based on different societal relationships, administrative structures, and political institutions. The aim of this comparative study is to deepen our understanding of how different institutional settings affect the politics of health care reforms and impact the policy outcome of those politics. The paper first isolates the most strategic institutional differences and similarities between the two countries, including: arrangement of health insurance schemes, involved actors, interests and lobbies, types of state intervention, regulations on additional charges by physicians, public-local combination in provision and finance, central-local relationship, and division or coordination between hospital and ambulatory sectors. The Japanese health insurance system links employment- and community-based insurance schemes, each of which have distinct principles for eligibility, financial sources and political actors, whilst demands for universalism and possible mutual co-operation between these existing institutions have now penetrated policy debates. The French system, on the other hand, characterized as one of "liberal universalism", consists of three occupation-based schemes, completed by residence-based schemes for people without sufficient income, most but not all of whom are unemployed. Although both systems are essentially unique, because of their historical development, they both maintain the principle of compulsory contributions by employers and beneficiaries, free choice of providers by the patients, and universal access to medical care. The second part of the paper analyses the policy debates in each country, together with the policy outcomes in terms of care reforms, with a particular focus on reforms on financing and on cost containment. The third and conclusive part interprets the comparative results, with special attention given to the ways social and political factors push, or not, towards unification in these institutionally divided SHI systems

Essays on Household Health Expenditures, National Health Insurance and Universal Access to Health Care in Ghana

Access to quality health services is essential for maintaining a healthy population and economic development hence the growing global consensus that universal health coverage is necessary. Ghana attempts to expand access by making basic health services free at the point of delivery through its National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Prior studies indicate NHIS increases demand for health services, but questions remain about its impact on out of pocket payments, quality of services, and the financial viability of the program. Hence, this dissertation analyzes the financial risk in health care seeking, the effect of NHIS on out of pocket payments and access to quality health care, and the financial viability of NHIS compared with the outcomes of Rwanda’s community-based health insurance programs with similar objectives but different approaches. The empirical analyses uses data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey conducted in 2005-2006 covering 37,212 individuals in 8,868 households, data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey V covering 9919 respondents aged 15-49 years, and data logging from other sources. The methods include two-stage multivariate regression modelling and maximum likelihood estimations. The study finds health expenditures respond strongly to need and weakly to income, the poor are more likely than the rich to pay of pocket for health care, and catastrophic out of pocket payments occur in all income groups and significantly among the poor. The need for uninsured services and ability to pay significantly determine of out of pocket payments by the insured. These findings imply that NHIS expands access to desired health services for the better-offs but does not eliminate catastrophic out of pocket payments, especially for the poor. Attitude of health worker, rather than the technical effectiveness of services, significantly predicts dissatisfaction with quality. The Rwandan model is more equitable than NHIS, but NHIS spends ten times more per capita. Drawing from Ghana’s and Rwanda’s experience, effective strategies for national health insurance programs must include i) practical means-testing in setting insurance premiums to improve equity ii) mandatory enrollments by whole households as a strategy for financial sustainability iii) client-based performance-evaluation in provider reimbursements to improve client satisfaction

Building a Better Future.... Together, We Can: Iowa's Program and Budget Fiscal Years 2016-2017, January 2015

Governor Terry E. Branstad's FY2016-17 budget in brie