THG Management Services Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

THG Management Services - Case Study Example It is apparent from the case study that the region in which THG is planning to run an HMO, has been lagging behind the rest of the nation in terms of availability of healthcare centers, which is resulting in higher costs for the services. With the announcement of the program called TennCare, healthcare in Tennessee became a national issue and it is now being felt that running a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) is bound to prove a profitable proposition because; i. Despite an increase in managed care in the state, the commercial premium per member/ per month in the HMO sector has not come down. It is worthwhile here to mention the hospital days for patients have instead come down. This indicates that there's still a growing demand for HMOs. ii. THG has been able to take advantage of the first mover advantage in several areas. This advantage reflects in the capitation in the commercial market. Capitation is the term used to identify the payments given to the physicians attached with HMOs. It is a fixed payment made to the physician depending upon the number of people enrolled with the HMO and the number of members put directly under the care of the physician. It is worthwhile here to mention that, the capitation amount is paid to the physician irrespective of the number of visits made by a member to the physician or irrespective of the number of members visiting the physician for their healthcare needs. Using the capitation network model, THG has been able to bring greater efficiency to the southern US healthcare market. iii. Having fixed its priorities, THG was able to develop a fast growing company with considerable success in short period of time. It was during their expansion plan that THG started evaluating the options of managing versus owning the risk. The two options being assessing the practical aspects of having a commercial group guaranteeing 8000 lives in Texas and managing Medicare projects in Atlanta, Georgia with another AMC. iv. Both HMO and PPO enter into an agreement with insurance companies, but the HMO offers its services at predetermined rates while in case of PPO the rates can vary depending upon the medical condition of the individual. v. HMOs often happen to be very restrictive and expect the individual to seek assistance for medical needs from within a network of doctors, medical practitioners, healthcare organizations. On the other hand a PPO doesn't have any preconditions attached and allows the individual to any place for treatment. Except in cases of emergency, tor an individual enrolled with HMO, it's a prerequisite that s/he must go through the primary care physician from within the HMO network and if this physician feels necessary then only the individual will be referred to any specialist. This might appear little restrictive in the sense that the individual has to follow couple of procedures before getting specialized treatment. On the other hand in case of PPO, there's no such restriction and an individual can seek the opinion of a specialist of his or her choice. But it is equally relevant

History of Christian Thought - Final Exam Questions Essay

History of Christian Thought - Final Exam Questions - Essay Example They were concerned with the future consequences of the kingdom. They identified themselves as â€Å"The Community of the Poor† and their social philosophies always favored the poor people (Frend, 27-28). Jesus Christ was given a violent death by his antagonists who crucified him onto a cross. The Jewish religion believed that the prophets usually sacrificed their lives as a martyr, and Jesus death occurred in a similar circumstance. Of course, being the â€Å"Son of God†, he resurrected himself within three days of his dying. Thus, his followers came to regard him as â€Å"the true and faithful martyr† who sacrificed his life for the salvation of mankind (Frend, 54). Paul, a religious genius, shifted the Christian ideology away from Palestinian Judaism to the Jewish cultural centers in Europe and Asia Minor. According to him, although Christianity was a reform movement within Judaism, one could become a Christian only through a formal process of baptism to the r eligion. However, Paul had not respected the Christian followers at Jerusalem and they naturally opposed his philosophies (Frend, 89). 2. During the 2nd century, Rome emerged as the leading center in Christianity. According to the account in Clement I, the Roman Church was governed by presbyter bishops, instead of a single authoritative bishop. Hermas’ account suggests that different religious officials were responsible of carrying out different tasks: Clement was in charge of the foreign correspondence of the Church while other bishops or overseers were asked to monitor the area of hospitality and other charitable activities of the institution. During this time, Rome also started implementing beneficial activities for communities living beyond the city (Frend, 130). During 130-180, the Christian religion experienced the advent of the Gnostic movement. The movement advocated a form of Gentile Christianity, which encouraged its followers to encompass all kinds of knowledge and experience in their ultimate aim of achieving salvation centering around the divinity of Christ. Basilides, Valentinus, and Heracleon were three of the pioneering teachers of the movement, who working in Alexandria, spread its influence to Rome, Italy, Asia Minor and the Rhone valley. The Gnostic philosophy laid the foundation for the Alexandrian school of theology and Christian Platonism, which flourished in the subsequent centuries (Frend, 195). During this time, the Christian religion was retained its presence although in a smaller scale. During the second century, Christians had become almost a minority in certain places of the western world. By this time, new religious movements were also emerging which differed from Christianity in their basic ideals. Religious fanaticism had reached such a peak that, Christians being a minority began to be persecuted at different places of the Roman Empire. 3. During the 2nd and the 3rd centuries, the Roman Empire started to witness evidence of religious syncretism among its citizens. During the ancient time, the empire had been under the pagan influence after which the Christian religion had become popular among the people. Now, influences of other religions had started percolating into Christianity and the people had started to include these new practices within their existing