Provide two reasons why Medicaid violations do not generally receive media attention Essay Example for Free

Provide two reasons why Medicaid violations do not generally receive media attention Essay One of the most frequent crimes of the affluent and the high-class of the society is Medicaid fraud. These frauds can be committed by several parties including the recipients and the providers. Medicaid is a government program that utilizes the taxpayer’s money to provide healthcare to the low income groups of the society. It is basically setup to help the weaker sections of the society including individuals above the age of 65, the disabled, the medically compromised and the low-income groups. The nations would be happy if the money is spending to help people in need, but frequently several providers and recipients indulge in fraud and abuse of the funds set aside under Medicaid. Some of the abuses committed by recipients include forging prescription, giving the medical card to another party, using several cards, duplicating or consuming excessive healthcare services, and selling the items received under Medicaid to others. Some of the abuses that can be committed by the providers include providing false bills, duplicating bills, providing unwanted medical care, doing unnecessary tests, billing in excess, compromising the quality of care under Medicaid services, and including the names of others in the bills (NY State, 2006). One of the reasons why Medicaid violations are not given great amount of media attention is because these crimes are usually committed by affluent. These crimes are often great amount of protection and secrecy, so as to gain for profit. In the US, it is estimated that Medicaid fraud cost the nation about forty billion dollars in the year 1993. Usually, a certain person rather than an organization would be involved in committing a Medicaid fraud. The White collar staffs who commit these crimes frequently think that they are above the law. They feel that committing such crimes is justified as it is anyway a part of the system. They would go to any extent to cover their crimes. The media would not like to get involved in covering such events, as they feel that they would later be harassed by the White collared staff. Besides, they also feel that they would not be getting any kind of requests they may have, as the white collared staff would be using their powers to avenge for the media attention given. It is found that the business-minded white collared staffs are more frequently involved in committing Medicaid frauds rather than the professional staff (Cullen, 2008). The media feels that the people who are victims by the crimes of Medicaid fraud are usually not the class who would be customers to their services. They may find that covering such events would not be beneficial to them in anyway, and would instead get them in bad looks with the high-class. The poor, elders and the disabled are less likely to be customers of the media services. They would also not stand up to fight their rights. The beneficiaries of Medicaid frequently are not aware of their rights. They may be often abused or neglected by the healthcare organization which may include the white collared staff. Frequently, the person getting abused may be physically and mentally helpless and would depend on the care provider for help. However, the care giver would be providing low quality healthcare and instead use the funds other Medicaid for other purposes (including gaining profits). Medicaid fraud is a criminal offence and involves abusing taxpayer’s money. It has been set aside for helping the weaker sections of the society, but instead these funds are ending up in the hands of the rich, thus making the rich richer and the poor poorer. At any cost, the media would have to change their policy of reporting cases of Medicaid fraud to the public.

Australia and China Tade Essay Example for Free

Australia and China Tade Essay China is a country located in East Asia. It is the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. China is the fourth largest country in the world behind Russia, Canada, and the United States. Australia is a continent and a country in the Southern Hemisphere, lying to the south of Southeast Asia, which divides the Indian and South Pacific Oceans. The population of Australia is 23 million. In 2009 China surpassed Japan to become Australias largest export market, the Australian and Chinese economies are strongly complementary. As a result, our trade and investment relationship is substantial and has developed well beyond its modest beginnings in the 1970s. According to Australian statistics, two-way merchandise trade has grown from $113 million in 1973, just after the establishment of diplomatic relations, to $78.2 billion in 2009. China is Australias largest trading partner, with total trade (goods and services) in 2009 valued at $85.1 billion, an increase of 15.1 per cent over the previous year. Government and/or NGO Roles: The Australian Government established the Australia-China Council (ACC) in 1978 to promote mutual understanding and foster people-to-people relations between Australia and China. The Chairperson is appointed by the Executive Council on the recommendation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who also appoints the Board members. The function of the Council is to make recommendations to the Australian Government through the Minister for Foreign Affairs on strengthening the Australia-China relationship in ways that support Australias foreign and trade policy interests. The Australia China Business Council (ACBC) is a membership-based, non-profit, non-governmental organisation comprising of a National Office, six Branches, and more than 1500 representatives from over 700 Australian companies who do business with China. Founded in 1973, ACBC actively promotes two-way trade and investment, and economic cooperation and understanding, between the business communities of Australia and China. ACBC plays an influential role as an advisor to the Australian Government on commercial relations with China. They are a strong supporter of the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and China to foster more competitive business in both nations. Founded in Beijing in 1996, The China-Australia Chamber of Commerces (AustCham Beijing) overriding goal is to advance Australian Business in China. It functions to provide members with the information, resources and contacts they need to succeed in China. The Chamber maintains a good working relationship with the Australian Embassy and with the various Australian government departments in China. AustCham is a non-profit organization, which operates independently from government. It is funded entirely by their membership and Chamber activities. Together with their sister AustChams in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, they work to promote strong trade and investment links between Australia and China. Treaties and Agreements- formal and/or informal: On the 18th of April 2005, Australia and China agreed to commence negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) following consideration of a joint FTA Feasibility Study. The study was completed in March 2005, and concluded that there would be significant economic benefits for both Australia and China through the negotiation of an FTA. From April 2013, WESTPAC and ANZ banks will now be the first to directly trade Australian dollars into Chinese Yuan. Due to this fact, deepening of relationships between China and Australia, it signals deepening of trade connections and great opportunities for future growth. Advantages and Disadvantages to Australia of this link: Advantages: Employment will increase in exporting industries and workers will be displaced as import competing industries fold (close down) in the competitive environment. With free trade many jobs have been created in Australia, especially in manufacturing and service industries Consumers benefit in the domestic economy as they can now obtain a greater variety of goods and services. The increased competitions ensure goods and services, are supplied at the lowest prices. Disadvantages: This can impact upon large numbers of workers, their families and local economies. Often it can be difficult for workers to find employment in growth industries and government assistance is necessary. This means that businesses, employees and consumers are more vulnerable to downturns in the economies of our trading partners. Future Direction of link: Australia and China share a strong and rapidly growing trade and economic relationship. Further strengthening and deepening this relationship is a major priority for both countries, with both governments committed to sustaining the impressive trade and investment performance achieved in the past two decades. In that time, China has become Australia’s largest two-way trading partner and vital to Australia’s future economic prosperity.

Effect of Life Events on Effective Leadership

Effect of Life Events on Effective Leadership Meers study is qualitative in nature. The purpose of his study was to explore how the selected leaders made sense of their experiences by understanding the context of the experiences themselves. It was imperative to the efficacy of his study to understand the perspectives of the leaders as they related their life experiences and what impact they saw these events having on their leadership development. As life experiences are best related in story format, it best served this study for the researcher to utilize personal interviews with participants as the primary method of data collection. The stories that leaders told about their formative life experiences cannot be broken down into easily manipulated variables, but rather must be understood as whole events that carry complex meanings for each individual. As Meers began his study, a theory was not presented for proving or dis-proving, however, in the process of data collection a theory did emerge. This is consistent with the qualitati ve approach and specifically the grounded theory method. Strauss and Corbin (1998) define grounded theory as: theory that was derived from data, systematically gathered and analyzed through the research process (pg. 12). The theoretical framework of how effective leaders learn from significant life experiences developed within this study matches this definition. The situation studied within this project was the significant life experiences of effective leaders with the process being leadership and the phenomenon being how these leaders learned from their respective significant experiences. The exploration of leaders life experiences moved from the specifics of each individuals stories to generalizations that can be applied to the broader area of leadership development. Purpose Statement The purpose of this study was to discover the role that significant life events played in the development of effective leaders. The use of the term significant in describing life events could sound somewhat limiting; however the intent of this study was for participants to define for themselves what a significant life event entails. Utilizing a semi-structured interview process, leaders perceived as being effective were interviewed to explore the meaning they made out of certain life experiences. Through analysis of this information the author attempted to discover common emerging themes which impacted their development. Problem Statements 1) What is leadership? and 2) How do leaders develop? or, From where do leaders come? Alignment of Research Question, Purpose Statement, and Problem Statement The author of this paper believes that the research questions, the purpose statement, and the problem statement are well aligned. First, based on the research question(s), it was critical for the researcher to provide a clear definition of leadership. In doing so, he was able to establish a foundation for his study. Meers study looked at effective leaders. It was critical for Meers to identify what an effective leader is. He did this through his review of literature and the identification of leadership based on a longitudinal study that included theory from numerous pioneers in the field of leadership and organizational studies. Meers also needed to research the foundations of leadership development. Most specifically, it was critical for him to include prior research theories of how a person becomes a leader and how a person develops and refines leadership skill and traits. Meers purpose statement effectively describes the research questions using concise language. Literature Used to Identify Gaps and Tensions within the Literature Meers dissertation includes a comprehensive literature review of prior studies. He began his review by defining leadership, which he accomplished through his own acquired knowledge. After defining leadership, the question (mentioned previously) that then arises is: How are leaders developed? Where do they come from? To answer these questions, Meers looked to the earlier work of Thomas Carlysle called the Great Man theory (Wren, 1995). Meers then addressed the transformation of leadership theory during the mid part of the twentieth century. He relied on the studies conducted by Conger (1992) and Fulmer (1997) who both studied the relationship between leaders and managers and whose work provided Meers with a clear distinction between management and leadership. Fulmers research regarding early leadership training provided Meers with an overview of where the field has been, where it was at the time of his research and where he saw it headed (Fulmer, 1997). The studies conducted by Burns (1978), Greenleaf (1970) and Kegan (1982) provided Meers with further information regarding the transformation of leadership theory. In his seminal work, Leadership, Burns (1978) proposed the idea that there were really two forms of leadership: transactional and transforming (or transformational). Burns (1978) work then encouraged others to begin to think of leadership as different from management, with leadership being much more focused on relationships with followers and particularly on influencing others to achieve common goals. For the purposes his study, Meers did not conduct a thorough analysis of servant leadership and transformational leadership, but instead focused on the impact the articulation and popularization of these forms of leadership have had upon the field of leadership training and development. He looked to the research of Greenleaf for this information. Kegans theory of moral development impacted the world of leadership training and development, mainly by introducing his idea of development. Meers was thorough in his choice to include the work of these three theorists. Meers longitudinal report ends with the contemporary work of Peter Senge (1990) who focused closely on the organization as a learning organization. Meers makes a nice transition from his section on the development of the organization to the actual experiences of leaders and managers and how emphasis has been placed upon learning from work experiences, specifically upon using these experiences as preparation for advancement to higher levels of management or leadership. Again, Meers cited the works of Senge (1990) and Kegan (1982), and also focused on the work of Robert E. Quinn (1996) who explored the importance of personal change in leading organizational change. To further establish the foundation for his area of study, Meers looked to the work of Ronald Heifetz of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University who brought forth the importance of learning from personal experiences and specifically how the reflection on certain experiences has become a part of some executive leadership education programs. A particular method that Heifetz developed and one he uses extensively in his courses at Harvard is the Case-in-point methodology in which students in the classroom bring their experiences to class and in essence become their own case studies (Parks, 2005). Also included in Meers literature review is the qualitative study conducted by Shamir, Dayan-Horesh and Adler (2005) in which they explored the life-stories that leaders tell. The purpose of their study was to extrapolate common themes in the leaders stories that may provide further insight into leadership development. Shamir, et al (2005) made the case that a leaders own story and even how he/she tells it has a strong impact upon how influential they are with their followers. Meers referred to the work of Avolio (1994) whose work, although ground breaking in the area of leadership development impacted by life experiences, was somewhat limited. The purpose of Avolios study was to explore the correlation between certain life experiences and to identify transformational leadership behaviors. Avolio (1994) selected the life experiences he was going to analyze. Meers stated in his dissertation that while this is a legitimate approach to a quantitative study, it limited the choices of the leaders in regard to which experiences they could identify as having impacted their development (Meers, 2009, p. 31). Yet another limitation to the study that Meers reported was in the more narrow focus on identified transformational leaders and especially upon specific transformational behaviors. Avolios study found some correlation between certain experiences and certain transformational leaders but it did not provide a great deal of insight into the general impact of life e vents or experiences upon leadership development (Avolio, 1994). Much like the work conducted by Avolio, Meers looked to a study completed by Bennis and Thomas (2002). Bennis and Thomas identified what they call crucible experiences which they define as those experiences that generally consisted of high stakes and often were tragic in nature. There were also gaps in this study. As with Avolioà ¢s (1994) study, the field was limited as the leaders interviewed seemed more inclined to talk about experiences that they perceived as having an impact directly upon their leadership development. Meers felt that this approach may not have told the complete story regarding development as the participants most likely automatically limited themselves in the experiences they selected as having impacts. Also, Meers felt that the researchers conducting this study failed to identify the meaning of leadership. Due to these limitations, Meers believed that there was room for further research to be conducted with defined leaders and how they perceived they had been impacted by their own significant life events.

Jealousy in Shakespeares Othello Essay -- Othello essays

Jealousy in Othello Shakespeare is well for his ability to compose plays full of deceit, revenge, and jealousy. Othello, one of Shakespeare’s most recognized tragedies, was consistently evolving around the central theme of jealousy. As these lies are unraveled the central theme of his play became distinct, and clearly visible. Furthermore the theme of jealousy goes hand in hand with love, as often is the case in real life. Love consumes all those who take part in it, and in Othello's case his flaws lie in his loving Desdemona so blindly. It is for that single reason that Iago knows that such a naà ¯ve man as Othello, who loves his wife so blindly and unrealistically, can be corrupted. Just as Othello's flaws lie within his inability to see past his jealous feelings, so does many of the other characters, no matter what social ranking they are classified in. Even from the well-developed characters, such as Othello, to the lesser figures, such as Roderigo, envy and lust are feelings all of Shakespeare's characters are accountable for holding at one time or other in the play. Within each of the characters in Othello is a level of jealousy, which Iago creates by testing their pressure points for his benefit. In Act 1 scene 1, Shakespeare opens up to his audience a level of jealousy that goes hand in hand with feelings of greed. This is the moment in which Iago expresses his animosity for Othello. Iago is sub... ... Works Cited and Consulted Bradley, A. C.. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Penguin, 1991. Di Yanni, Robert. â€Å"Character Revealed Through Dialogue.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Literature. N. p.: Random House, 1986. Mack, Maynard. Everybody’s Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Shakespeare. Othello. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. Rossi. New York: Longman, 1999. 312-379. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.

The Importance of Disaster Investigations for Systems Engineers :: Engineers Engineering Systems Essays

The Importance of Disaster Investigations for Systems Engineers - What is a Systems Engineer? In the modern industry engineering systems are becoming more complex by the day. Therefore a need for elite engineers i.e. the Systems Engineer, capable of applying a wide range of engineering disciplines to a variety of tasks from product design and development from requirements analysis to simulation to manufacturing and marketing etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is essential. Such engineers work within a team at the heart of the organisation where the design and development of a project is carried out. At this stage it is of great importance that every aspect of the design is studied accurately in order to ensure the final product works effectively, efficiently and safely. However, although maximum effort is made during the design, it is impossible to produce a result 100% efficient. This unfortunately leads to the occurrence of accidents and in some extreme cases to a disaster. By carrying out investigations into the disasters and their causation, lessons can be learnt and employed in future designs. This allows the team of engineers to improve the performance and efficiency of the system whilst maintaining the maximum safety levels. - Disasters and why they happened? - Air disasters caused due to faulty design: There have been historically countless cases of confusion in handling the flaps and the gear controls on the DC3 aircraft as they are in close proximity to each other and of similar shape. This is a problem that should have been addressed by the system engineers before the final go ahead for production was approved considering the importance of such instruments and their role during the flight of the aircraft. - Challenger disaster caused due to faulty design: This incident saw the destruction of the United States space shuttle Challenger 73 seconds after take-off from the Kennedy Space Centre on January 28, 1986 killing the entire shuttle crew. The disaster was caused by the failure of an "O-ring" seal in the solid-fuel rocket on the shuttle's right side. The seal's faulty design and the unusually cold weather, which affected the seal's proper functioning, allowed hot gases to leak through the joint. Flames from inside the booster rocket escaped through the failed seal and enlarged the small hole. The flames then burned through the shuttle's external fuel tank and cut away one of the supports that attached the booster to the side of the external tank. The booster broke loose and collided with the tank, piercing the tank's side. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuels from the tank and booster mixed and ignited, causing the shuttle to tear apart. It is quite clear from this example that had the design of the ring

Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts Essay -- Organization

Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Organizational behavior is defined as the study of human behavior in organizations. Organizational behavior is an interdisciplinary body of knowledge with strong ties to the behavioral sciences such as psychology, sociology and anthropology as well as to allied sciences. However, the goal of organizational behavior is to integrate the diverse insights of these other disciplines and apply them to real-world problems and opportunities. The ultimate goal of organizational behavior is to improve the performance of people, groups and organizations (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2005).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Organizational culture is defined as the shared beliefs and values that influence the behavior of organizational members. The internal environments of organizations display an underlying respect for people and for workforce diversity. Diversity is the presence of individual-differences based on gender, race and ethnicity, age, able-bodiedness, and sexual orientation. Members of diverse organizations are skilled at working successfully with people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, of different ages and genders, different ethnic and national cultures, and different life styles (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2005).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Organizational effectiveness is an indicator of how well organizations perform. The analysis of performance can be done from different perspectives. The first is the systems resource approach, which looks at the inpu...

Pizza and Break-even Point Essay

Complete both parts. a) What are the three methods used for solving systems of equations? Which method do you prefer to use? b) Break-Even Analysis – Systems of Equations Application Problem Suppose a company produces and sells pizzas as its product. Its revenue is the money generates by selling x number of pizzas. Its cost is the cost of producing x number of pizzas. Revenue Function: R(x) = selling price per pizza(x) Cost Function: C(x) = fixed cost + cost per unit produced(x). The point of intersection on a graph of each function is called the break-even point. We can also find the break-even point using the Substitution Method. Suppose Dan’s Pizza Parlor has a fixed cost of $280 and it costs $4 to produce each pizza. Dan sells every pizza for $12. The Revenue Function is: R(x) = 12x The Cost Function is: C(x) = 280 + 4x The break-even point occurs where the graphs of C and R intersect. Therefore, we can find this point by solving the system: y =12x y = 280 + 4x. How many pizzas does Dan have to produce to break-even? If he exceeds his break-even point, will he make a profit or have a loss? A) What are the three methods used for solving systems of equations? Which method do you prefer to use? graphing, substitution, and elimination. I use all there but I think I use elimination more. B) C(x) = 280 + 4x r(x)= 12x 12x= 280 + 4x 8x=280 x= 35 R(x) =12(35) =$420 So Dan has to produce 35 pizzas to produce his break-even point. He will have a$420 profit.