Consumers' Checkbook
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Consumers' Checkbook
''Consumers' Checkbook''/Center for the Study of Services (doing business as ''Consumers’ CHECKBOOK'') is an independent, nonprofit consumer organization. It was founded in 1974 in order to provide survey information to consumers about vendors and service providers. There are both print and online publications in the Boston, Chicago, Delaware Valley, Puget Sound, San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, Twin Cities, and Washington, D.C., areas. Currently most of the Center's income comes from doing contract surveys for major health plans. Company overview ''Consumers' Checkbook'' and Center for the Study of Services were founded by company President Robert Krughoff after he had a bad auto repair experience. In response he founded the publication as a not-for-profit venue for rating professionals in fields including mechanics and plumbers. Over time the publication came to also review other professions and services, like physicians. As a part of the intention to provide unbiased information ...
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Consumer Advocacy
Consumer organizations are advocacy groups that seek to protect people from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, false advertising, astroturfing and pollution. Consumer Organizations may operate via protests, litigation, campaigning, or lobbying. They may engage in single-issue advocacy (e.g., the British Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), which campaigned against keg beer and for cask ale) or they may set themselves up as more general consumer watchdogs, such as the Consumers' Association in the UK. One common means of providing consumers useful information is the independent comparative survey or test of products or services, involving different manufacturers or companies (e.g., ''Which?'', ''Consumer Reports'', etcetera). Another arena where consumer organizations have operated is food safety. The needs for campaigning in this area are less easy to reconcile with their traditional methods, since the scientific, dietary or medical evidence is normally more comp ...
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Washington, D
Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C. * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States Washington may also refer to: Places England * Washington, Tyne and Wear, a town in the City of Sunderland metropolitan borough ** Washington Old Hall, ancestral home of the family of George Washington * Washington, West Sussex, a village and civil parish Greenland * Cape Washington, Greenland * Washington Land Philippines *New Washington, Aklan, a municipality *Washington, a barangay in Catarman, Northern Samar *Washington, a barangay in Escalante, Negros Occidental *Washington, a barangay in San Jacinto, Masbate *Washington, a barangay in Surigao City United States * Washington, Wisconsin (other) * Fort Washington (other) ...
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English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ...
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Preferred Provider Organization
In U.S. health insurance, a preferred provider organization (PPO), sometimes referred to as a participating provider organization or preferred provider option, is a managed care organization of medical doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers who have agreed with an insurer or a third-party administrator to provide health care at reduced rates to the insurer's or administrator's clients. Overview A preferred provider organization is a subscription-based medical care arrangement. A membership allows a substantial discount below the regularly charged rates of the designated professionals partnered with the organization. Preferred provider organizations themselves earn money by charging an access fee to the insurance company for the use of their network, unlike the usual insurance with premiums and corresponding payments paid either in full or partially by the insurance provider to the medical doctor. They negotiate with providers to set fee schedules and handle disput ...
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Medicare Advantage
Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C, MA) is a capitated program for providing Medicare benefits in the United States. Under Part C, Medicare pays a private-sector health insurer a fixed payment. The insurer then pays for the health care expenses of enrollees. Insurers are allowed to vary the benefits from those provided by Medicare's other parts. Part C plans are required to offer coverage that meets or exceeds the standards set by the other parts, but they do not have to cover every benefit in the same way (actuarial equivalence is required). Plans must be approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). If a MA plan reduces some benefits, the savings may be passed along to consumers by lowering co-payments for doctor visits (or any other plus or minus aggregation approved by CMS). Coverage must include inpatient hospital (Part A) and outpatient (Part B) services. Typically, the plan also includes prescription drug (Part D) coverage. Many plans also offer add ...
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Office Of Personnel Management
An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it (see officer, office-holder, official); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the term "office" may refer to business-related tasks. In law, a company or organization has offices in any place where it has an official presence, even if that presence consists of (for example) a storage silo rather than an establishment with desk-and-chair. An office is also an architectural and design phenomenon: ranging from a small office such as a bench in the corner of a small business of extremely small size (see small office/home office), through entire floors of buildings, up to and including massive buildings dedicated entirely to one c ...
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United States Department Of Health And Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America". Before the separate federal Department of Education was created in 1979, it was called the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). HHS is administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. The position is currently held by Xavier Becerra. The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the uniformed service of the PHS, is led by the Surgeon General who is responsible for addressing matters concerning public health as authorized by the secretary or by the assistant secretary for Health in addition to his or her primary mission of administering the Commission ...
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ProPublica
ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010Pulitzer progress for non-profit newsProPublicaPulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting: Deadly Choices at Memorial and published in ''The New York Times Magazine''Sheri Fink, '' New York Times Magazine'', August 25, 2009The Deadly Choices at Memorial as well as on ProPublica.org.ProPublica, August 27, 2009The Deadly Choices at Memorial ProPublica states that its investigations are conducted by its staff of full-time investigative reporters, and the resulting stories are distributed to news partners for publication or broadcast. In some cases, reporters from both ProPublica and its partners work together on a story. ProPublica has partnered with more than 90 different news organizations, and it has won six Pulitzer Prizes. History ProPub ...
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Biannual Magazines Published In The United States
An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. Most countries celebrate national anniversaries, typically called national days. These could be the date of independence of the nation or the adoption of a new constitution or form of government. There is no definite method for determining the date of establishment of an institution, and it is generally decided within the institution by convention. The important dates in a sitting monarch's reign may also be commemorated, an event often referred to as a "jubilee". Names * Birthdays are the most common type of anniversary, on which someone's birthdate is commemorated each year. The actual celebration is sometimes moved for practical reasons, as in the case of an official birthday or one falling on February 29. * Wedding anniversaries ...
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Consumer Magazines
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. The term most commonly refers to a person who purchases goods and services for personal use. Consumer rights “Consumers, by definition, include us all," said President John F. Kennedy, offering his definition to the United States Congress on March 15, 1962. This speech became the basis for the creation of World Consumer Rights Day, now celebrated on March 15. In his speech : John Fitzgerald Kennedy outlined the integral responsibility to consumers from their respective governments to help exercise consumers' rights, including: *The right to safety: To be protected against the marketing of goods that are hazardous to health or life. *The right to be informed: To be protected against fraudulent, deceitful, or grossly misleading informatio ...
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Consumer Guides
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or Service (economics), services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. The term most commonly refers to a person who purchases goods and services for personal use. Consumer rights “Consumers, by definition, include us all," said President John F. Kennedy, offering his definition to the United States Congress on March 15, 1962. This speech became the basis for the creation of World Consumer Rights Day, now celebrated on March 15. In his speech : John Fitzgerald Kennedy outlined the integral responsibility to consumers from their respective governments to help exercise consumers' rights, including: *The right to safety: To be protected against the marketing of goods that are hazardous to health or life. *The right to be informed: To be protected against fraudulent, deceitful, or grossly ...
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