The main objective of risk adjustment in systems of regulated competition on health insurance markets is the removal of incentives for undesirable risk selection. We introduce a simple conceptual framework to clarify how the definition of "acceptable costs" and the distinction between legitimate...

In 1996 free choice of health insurers has been introduced in the German social health insurance scheme. Competition between insurers was supposed to increase efficiency. A crucial precondition for effective competition among health insurers is that consumers search for lower-priced health...

In times of peak demand hospitals may fail to deliver the high standard of treatment quality that they are able to offer their patients at regular times. To assess the magnitude of these effects, this study analyzes the effects of low staff-to-patients ratios on patient outcomes empirically.We...

Im Herbst soll im Bundestag eine Reform der GKV verabschiedet werden und zum 1. Januar 2011 in Kraft treten. Philipp Rösler, Bundesgesundheitsminister, unterstreicht, dass die Reform den Einstieg in den Systemwechsel bedeutet: Denn mit der Festschreibung des prozentualen Beitragssatzes und der...

Recent reforms of the Swiss health care system to introduce regulated competition have raised expectations about the possible combination of more efficient services, while at same time maintaining or even increasing the level of solidarity in health care systems. In this article we examine...

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of psychosocial factors in the German information and communication technology (ICT) sector. Specifically, the authors seek to explore the relationships between sources of workplace social support and work engagement....