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Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan
The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program is a system of "managed competition" through which employee health benefits are provided to civilian government employees and annuitants of the United States government. The government contributes 72% of the weighted average premium of all plans, not to exceed 75% of the premium for any one plan (calculated separately for individual and family coverage). The FEHB program allows some insurance companies, employee associations, and labor unions to market health insurance plans to governmental employees. The program is administered by the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). History The program was created in 1960. Employer sponsorship of health insurance in the United States became prevalent during World War II, as one of the few ways by which employers could escape wage and price control limitations on employee wages. The government originally proposed a system that would revolve around a dominant government-d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Federal Civil Service
The United States federal civil service is the civilian workforce (i.e., non-elected and non-military public sector employees) of the United States federal government's departments and agencies. The federal civil service was established in 1871 (). U.S. state and local government entities often have comparable civil service systems that are modeled on the national system, in varying degrees. The U.S. civil service is managed by the Office of Personnel Management, which reported approximately 2.79 million civil servants employed by the federal government, including employees in the departments and agencies run by any of the three branches of government (the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch), including over 600,000 employees in the U.S. Postal Service. Types of employees There are three categories of U.S. federal employees: * The '' competitive service'' includes the majority of civil service positions, meaning employees are selected based on merit after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bargaining
In the social sciences, bargaining or haggling is a type of negotiation in which the buyer and seller of a good or service debate the price or nature of a transaction. If the bargaining produces agreement on terms, the transaction takes place. Although the most apparent aspect of bargaining in markets is as an alternative pricing strategy to fixed prices, it can also include making arrangements for credit or bulk purchasing, as well as serving as an important method of clienteling. Bargaining has largely disappeared in parts of the world where retail stores with fixed prices are the most common place to purchase goods. However, for expensive goods such as homes, antiques and collectibles, jewellery and automobiles, bargaining can remain commonplace. Dickering and "haggling" refer to the same process. Where it takes place Haggling is associated commonly with bazaars and other markets where centralized regulation is difficult or impossible. Both religious beliefs an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medicare Modernization Act
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, also called the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA, is a federal law of the United States, enacted in 2003. It produced the largest overhaul of Medicare (United States), Medicare in the public health program's 38-year history. The MMA was signed by President George W. Bush on December 8, 2003, after passing in United States Congress, Congress by a close margin. Prescription drug benefits The MMA's most touted feature is the introduction of an entitlement benefit for prescription drugs, through tax breaks and subsidies. In the years since Medicare's creation in 1965, the role of prescription drugs in patient care has significantly increased. As new and expensive drugs have come into use, patients, particularly senior citizens at whom Medicare was targeted, have found prescriptions harder to afford. The MMA was designed to address this problem. The benefit is funded in a complex way, reflecting diverse prioritie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as the List of secretaries of state of the United States, 68th United States Secretary of State, United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 under Barack Obama and as a United States Senate, United States senator from Massachusetts from 1985 to 2013. He was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in the 2004 United States presidential election, 2004 election, losing to incumbent President George W. Bush. Kerry grew up as a child of military personnel in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., before attending boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In 1966, after graduating from Yale University, he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve, ultimately atta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alain Enthoven
Alain C. Enthoven (born September 10, 1930) is an American economist. He was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965, and from 1965 to 1969, he was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis. Currently, he is Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management, Emeritus, at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Enthoven received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1952, an M.Phil. from the University of Oxford in 1954, and a Ph.D. from MIT in 1956. He was a RAND Corporation economist between 1956 and 1960. Enthoven has argued that integrated delivery systems — networks of health care organizations under a parent holding company that provide a continuum of health care services — align incentives and resources better than most healthcare delivery systems, leading to improved medical care quality while controlling costs. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a former Rho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Code Of Federal Regulations
In the law of the United States, the ''Code of Federal Regulations'' (''CFR'') is the codification of the general and permanent regulations promulgated by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government of the United States. The CFR is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to federal regulation. The CFR annual edition is published as a special issue of the '' Federal Register'' by the Office of the Federal Register (part of the National Archives and Records Administration) and the Government Publishing Office. In addition to this annual edition, the CFR is published online on the Electronic CFR (eCFR) website, which is updated daily. Background Congress frequently delegates authority to an executive branch agency to issue regulations to govern some sphere. These statutes are called "enabling legislation." Enabling legislation typically has two parts: a substantive scope (typically using language such as "The Secretary shall promulgate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High-deductible Health Plan
In the United States, a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) is a health insurance plan with lower premiums and higher deductibles than a traditional health plan. It is intended to incentivize consumer-driven healthcare. Being covered by an HDHP is also a requirement for having a health savings account. Some HDHP plans also offer additional "wellness" benefits, provided before a deductible is paid. High-deductible health plans are a form of catastrophic coverage, intended to cover for catastrophic illnesses. Adoption rates of HDHPs have been growing since their inception in 2004, not only with increasing employer options, but also increasing government options. As of 2016, HDHPs represented 29% of the total covered workers in the United States; however, the impact of such benefit design is not widely understood.Waters, T.M., Chang, C.F., Cecil, W.T., Kasteridis, P., and Mirvis, D"Impact of High-Deductible Health Plans on Health Care Utilization and Costs" ''Health Services Researc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fee-for-service
Fee-for-service (FFS) is a payment model where services are unbundled and paid for separately. In health care, it gives an incentive for physicians to provide more treatments because payment is dependent on the quantity of care, rather than quality of care. However evidence of the effectiveness of FFS in improving health care quality is mixed, without conclusive proof that these programs either succeed or fail. Similarly, when patients are shielded from paying (cost-sharing) by health insurance coverage, they are incentivized to welcome any medical service that might do some good. Fee-for-services raises costs, and discourages the efficiencies of integrated care. A variety of reform efforts have been attempted, recommended, or initiated to reduce its influence (such as moving towards bundled payments and capitation). In capitation, physicians are not incentivized to perform procedures, including necessary ones, because they are not paid anything extra for performing them. FFS is t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earmark (politics)
An earmark is a provision inserted into a discretionary spending appropriations bill that directs funds to a specific recipient while circumventing the merit-based or competitive funds allocation process. Earmarks feature in United States Congress spending policy, and they are present in public finance of many other countries as a form of political particularism. Etymology "Earmark" comes from the livestock term, where the ears of domestic animals were cut in specific ways so that farmers could distinguish their stock from others grazing on public land. In particular, the term comes from earmarked hogs where, by analogy, pork-barreled legislation would be doled out among members of the local political machine. Definitions In 2006 the Congressional Research Service (CRS) compiled a report on the use of earmarks in thirteen Appropriation Acts from 1994 through 2005 in which they noted that there was "not a single definition of the term earmark accepted by all practitioners and obser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pork Barrel
''Pork barrel'', or simply ''pork'', is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district. The usage originated in American English, and it indicates a negotiated way of political particularism. Political science Scholars use it as a technical term regarding legislative control of local appropriations. In election campaigns, the term is used in derogatory fashion to attack opponents. Typically, "pork" involves national funding for government programs whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public works projects, certain national defense spending projects, and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples. Citizens Against Government Waste outlines seven criteria by which spending in the United States can be classified as "pork": # Requested by only one chamber of Congress # No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George W
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he previously served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. While in his twenties, Bush flew warplanes in the Texas Air National Guard. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in the oil industry. In 1978, Bush unsuccessfully ran for the House of Representatives. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball before he was elected governor of Texas in 1994. As governor, Bush successfully sponsored legislation for tort reform, increased education funding, set higher standards for schools, and reformed the criminal justice system. He also helped make Texas the leading producer of wind powered electricity in the nation. In the 2000 presidential election, Bush defeated Democratic incum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
