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Biomedical subjects

N Baloff

Publications and source records attributed to N Baloff.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

Utilization patterns of health maintenance organization disenrollees.

This article addresses several questions about the effect of disenrollment on the start-up phenomenon in health maintenance organizations that were raised in a recent exchange of articles and comments in this journal. The results show that disenrollees, like continuous enrollees, go through a start-up phase of utilization that decreases over duration of membership to a stable lower level. The study also differentiates between voluntary and involuntary disenrollees, both of which go through start-ups. The different characteristics of the start-ups of both groups of disenrollees are contrasted with those of continuous enrollees. The implications of these findings for planners and administrators are discussed, and a future research agenda is recommended.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Start-up analysis for marketing strategy.

The complex start-up effect on utilization of health care services is too often overlooked or underestimated by marketing planners, leading to a range of negative consequences for both the users of services and the provider organization. Start-up analysis allows accurate estimation of these utilization effects for coordinated strategic planning among marketing finance, and operations.

Health Maintenance Organizations↗
PubMed1984

Policy implications of startup utilization by enrollees in prepaid group plans.

This article discusses several policy implications of the so-called startup effect, in which high initial health services utilization by new enrollees in prepaid group plans ( PGPs ) becomes reduced with the increasing duration of membership. Results of research in a developing PGP are analyzed as they relate to a mathematical model of startups for two measures of enrollee use. After estimating the total costs of startups in this setting, the motivating effects of such costs on PGPs are examined in relation to several policy issues--including the rate of PGP development in the United States, the use of financial incentives to enroll the elderly and medically disadvantaged, potential inequities of premium determination, the large impact of startups on disenrollment , and the federally mandated process of annual announcement of benefits and open enrollment. Ideas and mechanisms for future study on the startup effect and its policy implications are discussed.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed1981

Membership duration and utilization rates in a prepaid group practice.

The relationship between utilization rates and duration of membership in prepaid group practices can have important implications for national policy and HMO administration. The results of this study demonstrate a substantial reduction in utilization rates with increasing duration of membership over a 5-year period in a developing prepaid group practice (PGP) located in urban St. Louis. This "start-up effect" is strongly evident across different socioeconomic subgroupings of the study population (sex, race, income, education and age) and for different employers and cohorts. The implications of widespread start-ups for health care financing policy and for important PGP management decisions are discussed, and suggestions are made for future study of the start-up phenomenon.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Planning around start-up.

When new patients join a prepaid group practice, their utilization of services is usually higher than it will be in a year or so. This "start-up effect" must be considered when planning for group growth. Demand projections are commonly based on data from outside sources and often fail to consider the many critical implications of the start-up effect. More accurate planning can be accomplished by using concrete start-up analysis based on internal information. Administrators who use careful predictions of demand levels rather than guess-work in their planning will provide their organizations with the foundation for a sound system of dynamic growth management.

Forecasting↗