Hospital quality and medicare payment: A theoretical and empirical investigation

Does Medicare\u27s payment rate for a hospital stay influence the quality of care received by a patient? We examine this question, theoretically and empirically. First, a model is developed which generates the key hypothesis -- that Medicare\u27s payment rate per admission should be positively related to care quality. We then test this hypothesis by estimating the relationship between Medicare\u27s DRG payment for pneumonia, heart failure and heart attacks and care quality, using clinically-recognized measures of the quality of pneumonia care, heart failure care and heart attack care. Newly available data on acute hospitals in 2007 from Hospital Compare (maintained by CMS) are analyzed. Similar results are provided from pneumonia care and heart failure care. We find a significant positive relationship between Medicare\u27s payment rate and care quality for some hospitals in both pneumonia care and heart failure care, but not for others, and where it is significant, the effect on quality is small in magnitude in both cares. For a hospital with average characteristics, the effect of payment on quality is insignificant. However, for hospitals that are very highly paid for pneumonia or heart failure and hospitals that treat large numbers of pneumonia cases or heart failure cases, we find a positive significant relationship. For such hospitals, which likely derive substantial revenue from pneumonia care or heart failure care, an increase in Medicare\u27s payment rate leads to a very small improvement in the quality of care provided

eCommerce Critical Success Factors for Chinese Enterprises: An Empirical Research on the Publishing Industry

Critical success factor of e-commerce (EC) adoption is an important issue for developing countries. This research discusses the assessment indicators and impact factors for EC success. Combining literature review and expert investigation, four assessment indicators and ten impact factors are identified to be important for Chinese publishing companies. To test the relationship between the assessment indicators and the impact factors, data are collected form the publishing industry in China. Data analysis result shows that factors such as “establish EC strategy fitted in with company’s characteristic”, “share information between systems”, and “manage customer relationship” are critical factors for Chinese publishing companies. This research is not only valuable for EC theory, but also important for EC practice. The findings are useful to guide the EC initiatives in China

Impact of Managerial Responses on Product Sales: Examining the Moderating Role of Competitive Intensity and Market Position

Online review platforms have become very popular in recent years, generating massive numbers of online reviews and thus enticing numerous enterprises to respond to reviews. Although the economic impact (e.g., sales impact) of managerial responses is well recognized, it is unclear whether such an impact is moderated by competitive intensity and market position. This study examines the moderating effects of competitive intensity and market position in the relationship between managerial responses and sales. Using a panel dataset from one of the largest restaurant review platforms in China, this research found that the influence of the volume of managerial responses to positive word-of-mouth (WOM) on sales declined with increasing competitive intensity and decreasing market position. Moreover, we found the volume and degree of personalization of managerial responses to negative WOM to be more important for enterprises with a low market position versus those with a high market position. Our results provide insights into the effectiveness of managerial responses in different environments. We also offer managerial implications to service providers on response strategies

A Precision Microbiome Approach Using Sucrose for Selective Augmentation of Staphylococcus epidermidis Fermentation against Propionibacterium acnes.

Acne dysbiosis happens when there is a microbial imbalance of the over-growth of Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) in the acne microbiome. In our previous study, we demonstrated that Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis, a probiotic skin bacterium) can exploit glycerol fermentation to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which have antimicrobial activities to suppress the growth of P. acnes. Unlike glycerol, sucrose is chosen here as a selective fermentation initiator (SFI) that can specifically intensify the fermentation activity of S. epidermidis, but not P. acnes. A co-culture of P. acnes and fermenting S. epidermidis in the presence of sucrose significantly led to a reduction in the growth of P. acnes. The reduction was abolished when P. acnes was co-cultured with non-fermenting S. epidermidis. Results from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis revealed four SCFAs (acetic acid, butyric acid, lactic acid, and succinic acid) were detectable in the media of S. epidermidis sucrose fermentation. To validate the interference of S. epidermidis sucrose fermentation with P. acnes, mouse ears were injected with both P. acnes and S. epidermidis plus sucrose or phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The level of macrophage-inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) and the number of P. acnes in ears injected with two bacteria plus sucrose were considerably lower than those in ears injected with two bacteria plus PBS. Our results demonstrate a precision microbiome approach by using sucrose as a SFI for S. epidermidis, holding future potential as a novel modality to equilibrate dysbiotic acne

Applying a Topical Relevance Typology to Analyze Online Product Information Types and Their Effects on Internet Consumer Decision

This paper lays out a research proposal of systematically analyzing and comparing the decision effects of online product information types. Hardly any in-depth knowledge is currently available on how different information types influence online consumer trust and purchase intention. To address this research gap, we apply a generic function-based topical relevance typology to classify the variety of online product information and plan for focused comparisons of the functional roles played by different information types in e-retailing. Understanding the differential impacts of each information type provides a basis for prioritizing online information provisioning and organization, which becomes particularly meaningful in the current context of information overload. The paper briefly reviews information research in e-commerce, introduces the product type as an important moderating factor, and discusses the conceptual basis and applicability of applying the generic relevance typology to analyze product relevant information. The research model and preliminary hypotheses are also described

Style Matching or Content Matching? Moderating Role of Discrete Negative Emotions in the Effects of Managerial Responses Tailoring

Many firms are struggling with how to tailor their responses to online reviews expressing negative emotions. While most studies on the managerial response (MR) tailoring point to the importance of MR content, how the content is conveyed, often referred to as language style, has been underexplored. Drawing on the verbal mimicry and communication tailoring literature, we propose that style matching may be at least as important as content matching and play a different role when responding to reviews embedded with negative emotions. Further, we consider the differences among the various negative emotions expressed in reviews and explore how to tailor MR for reviews embedded with discrete negative emotions (anger, sadness, anxiety, and disgust) expressed in reviews. The results show that style matching is more effective for anger-embedded reviews and sadness-embedded reviews while content matching performs better for disgust-embedded reviews. However, these two tailoring strategies are not effective for anxiety-embedded reviews