Optimal health insurance contract : can moral hazard increase indemnity ?.

In this note, we generalize the results obtained by Barday and Lesur (2005) by considering a bivariated non separable utility function. We characterize optimal health insurance contracts. Moreover, we show that under moral hazard a sufficiently high risk aversion implies that the optimal coverage and the optimal preventive effort are higher than with perfect information.Moral hazard; Health insurance; bivariate utility function; health status; optimal contract;

Memantine for prevention of migraine: a retrospective study of 60 cases.

The objective was to retrospectively characterise the efficacy of memantine as preventive therapy in a series of patients with frequent migraine. Patients in a university headache clinic completed a survey regarding their experience with memantine, and medical records were reviewed. All patients who received memantine as preventive therapy for migraine over a 15-month period were mailed surveys and consent forms for record review. Patients were treated with memantine beginning at a dose of 5 mg/day, increasing if needed by 5 mg/week up to 10 mg twice a day. The majority of patients (36 out of 54) treated with memantine for at least 2 months reported a significant reduction in estimated headache frequency, and improved function. Side effects were uncommon and generally mild. This limited retrospective case review suggests that memantine may be an effective preventive therapy for patients with frequent migraine. A prospective trial is warranted

PERENCANAAN SISTEM PERAWATAN MESIN DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE RELIABILITY CENTERED MAINTENANCE (RCM) PADA PT. INDOPHERIN JAYA, PROBOLINGGO

The study aimed to identify the right preventive care for corrective treatment formerly used in the company. When the production process, the breakdown of the production of frequently caused by the production process operating 24 hours, and led to activities in the production process. The company has several: the boiler of a steam engine, thermal oil heater, conveyor, and chiller water. As for the data thesis research needed in this primary data conducted interviews directly with the heads of the technique, operators and mechanics. n its management will be arranged in table containing column function descriptor components and component failure of function, data - this data will be used for analysis Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA). Based on the result analysis and processing the data was already performed in pt indhoperin jaya, through a failure by both fmea analysis method known components valves expansion and be a failure for the highest of an RPN 162 and 180. Of engineering treatment with rcm keandalannya mengunnakan methods to find, reliability of expansion valves from components originally 36,8 % into 73,6 %. For the reliability of components to be 28,4 % 56,8 %

Correlation of Lipopolysaccharide Endotoxin Level in Cotton Dust with the Increase of TNFα Level and the Decline of Lung Function in Cotton Spinning Factory Workers

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) endotoxin contained in cotton dust may cause airway inflammation and decline of lung function when inhaled, which eventually leads to respiratory symptoms. The objective of this research is to analyze the correlation of the exposure of LPS endotoxin in cotton dust with the increase of TNFα level and the decline of lung function after one day’s work. This study applies analytical observation method and prospective cohort approach. Main participants of this study were the workers of a cotton spinning factory located in Tulangan District, Sidoarjo Regency, East Java Province. Sixteen samples from cotton factory were taken as study group, and twenty three samples from village administrators were taken as control group. Data collection involves several techniques: spirometry, laboratory test, and interview. Results showed that concentration of personal dust has a significant relationship with the decline of FVC, %FVC, FEV1, and %FEV1, with Pearson correlation test showing p<0.05. LPS endotoxin in personal dust samples has a significant relationship with the increase of blood serum TNFα and the decline of FEV1 and %FEV1, with Pearson correlation test showing p>0.05. The research concludes that the level of LPS endotoxin was strongly related to the increase of blood serum TNFα and the decline of lung function. Development of more effective preventive measures such as stronger enforcement of worker’s health maintenance regulations and use of personal protective equipment is needed to ensure the best protection of cotton workers’ health

Estimation of component redundancy in optimal age maintenance

The classical Optimal Age-Replacement defines the maintenance strategy based on the equipment failure consequences. For severe consequences an early equipment replacement is recommended. For minor consequences the repair after failure is proposed. One way of reducing the failure consequences is the use of redundancies, especially if the equipment failure rate is decreasing over time, since in this case the preventive replacement does not reduce the risk of failure. The estimation of an active component redundancy degree is very important in order to minimize the life-cycle cost. If it is possible to make these estimations in the early phase of system design, the implementation is easier and the amortization faster. This work proposes an adaptation of the Optimal Age-Replacement method in order to simultaneously optimize the equipment redundancy allocation and the maintenance plan. The main goal is to provide a simple methodology, requiring the fewer data possible. A set of examples are presented illustrating that this methodology covers a wide variety of operating conditions. The optimization of the number of repairs between each replacement, in the cases of imperfect repairs, is another feature of this methodology

Epic Human Failure on June 30, 2013

Nineteen Prescott Fire Department, Granite Mountain Hot Shot (GMHS) wildland firefighters and supervisors (WFF), perished on the June 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire (YHF) in Arizona. The firefighters left their Safety Zone during forecast, outflow winds, triggering explosive fire behavior in drought-stressed chaparral. Why would an experienced WFF Crew, leave ‘good black’ and travel downslope through a brush-filled chimney, contrary to their training and experience? An organized Serious Accident Investigation Team (SAIT) found, “… no indication of negligence, reckless actions, or violations of policy or protocol.” Despite this, many WFF professionals deemed the catastrophe, “… the final, fatal link, in a long chain of bad decisions with good outcomes.” This paper is a theoretical and realistic examination of plausible, faulty, human decisions with prior good outcomes; internal and external impacts, influencing the GMHS; and two explanations for this catastrophe: Individual Blame Logic and Organizational Function Logic, and proposed preventive mitigations

Learning to Address Health Inequality in the United States with a Bayesian Decision Network

Life-expectancy is a complex outcome driven by genetic, socio-demographic, environmental and geographic factors. Increasing socio-economic and health disparities in the United States are propagating the longevity-gap, making it a cause for concern. Earlier studies have probed individual factors but an integrated picture to reveal quantifiable actions has been missing. There is a growing concern about a further widening of healthcare inequality caused by Artificial Intelligence (AI) due to differential access to AI-driven services. Hence, it is imperative to explore and exploit the potential of AI for illuminating biases and enabling transparent policy decisions for positive social and health impact. In this work, we reveal actionable interventions for decreasing the longevity-gap in the United States by analyzing a County-level data resource containing healthcare, socio-economic, behavioral, education and demographic features. We learn an ensemble-averaged structure, draw inferences using the joint probability distribution and extend it to a Bayesian Decision Network for identifying policy actions. We draw quantitative estimates for the impact of diversity, preventive-care quality and stable-families within the unified framework of our decision network. Finally, we make this analysis and dashboard available as an interactive web-application for enabling users and policy-makers to validate our reported findings and to explore the impact of ones beyond reported in this work.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table (excluding the supplementary material), accepted for publication in AAAI 201

The biggest vested interest of all: how government lobbies to restrict individual rights and freedom

The Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan wrote in The Monthly in March 2012 that : Australia’s fair go is today under threat from a new source."To be blunt, the rising power of vested interests is undermining our equality and threatening our democracy."But not all vested interests are private corporations. This paper draws attention to two statutory agencies of the Commonwealth Government that have an explicit, legislatively - defined function to lobby and advocate for public policy change – the Australian National Preventive Health Agency and the Australian Human Rights Commission.These two agencies are effectively taxpayer funded lobbyists, embedded in the public policy process, enjoying privileged access to the institutions of government.The Australian National Preventative Health Agency (ANPHA) received $57,718,000 in the 2012 - 13 Federal Budget to “driv[e] the national capacity for change and innovation around preventive health policies and programs.”ANPHA publicly advocates and privately lobbies for a wide range of Nanny State restrictions on alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy food.The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) received$23,133,000 in the 2012 - 13 Federal Budget . One oF its primary tasks is to “promote an understanding and acceptance ... of human rights in Australia ... undertake research and educational programs” and “develop laws, policies and programs” for parliament to enact. ( Unfortunately, the AHRC does not disclose how much it of it s budget it directs towards this task.)However the human rights that the AHRC chooses to promote and advocate are highly selective, favouring certain rights above others.As well as being policy lobbyists in their own right, AHRC and ANPHA are central to a pattern of relationships between the government and non - government sectors. Taxpayer money is being used to lobby for the allocation of more taxpayer money.One - third of the submissions to the Preventative Health Taskforce – which established the Australian National Preventive Health Agency – were from bodies which received large amounts of taxpayer funding