Why do most business lobbies seek to limit class action lawsuits when all consumers benefit from an opportunity to receive compensation for harms coming from product defects? (250 words)

Sens. Reintroduce Privacy Law for Substance Use Disorder Treatment

The bipartisan senate proposal, Protecting Jessica Grubb’s Legacy Act, would modernize 42 CFR Part 2 privacy regulation to support substance use disorder treatment and improve care coordination.

By Jessica Davis

March 04, 2020 - Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, reintroduced the Protecting Jessica Grubbs Legacy Act, a privacy bill designed to modernize 42 CFR Part 2 regulations to improve data sharing and privacy around the medical records of substance use disorder patients.

As it stands with the current 42 CFR Part 2, it’s difficult or impossible to share addiction records. The bill was first introduced during the Obama Administration in response to a patient story: Jessica Grubbs was recovering from substance use disorder when she had surgery. However, the discharging doctor did not see that information and sent Grubbs home with oxycodone. She later died of an overdose.

“No family or community should ever have to go through the senseless and preventable tragedy that Jessica Grubb and her family had to endure,” Manchin said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill is essential to combatting the opioid epidemic and ensuring that these painful deaths are prevented.”

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“By making changes to the existing regulations regarding the medical records of patients with substance use disorder, we can save thousands of lives,” he continued. “No one should go to the doctor expecting to receive help and instead be thrown back into the nightmare of addiction. We must do more to combat this crisis as a country.”

The senators have since made updates to the initial bill that would still bolster data sharing, while protecting patient privacy. For one, the bill requires affirmative, written consent from patients to opt into and share their medical records.

The bill also added an education component to ensure patients understand what patients are consenting to before opting into data sharing and expands the scope the bill to align it completely with all HIPAA regulations. There will also be an opt-out clause to give patients the right to rescind consent if they change their minds in the future.

The proposed legislation also protects patients from discriminatory behavior targeted at substance use disorder, including access to treatment, employment termination, worker’s compensation receipt, rental housing, social services, and benefits.

Lastly, the legislation also ensures all industry stakeholders are included in the implementation of the act by requiring the Department of Health and Human Services’ Secretary to collaborate with legal, clinical, privacy, and civil rights experts to update the code of federal regulations to implement the bill’s provisions.

Industry stakeholders have been pushing for an update to 42 CFR Part 2 for a number of years but have yet to come to an agreement. The rule has been called “cumbersome and out-of-date” by 39 state attorneys general, HHS has been asked to align the rule with HIPAA, and efforts have asked Congress to do the same.

In August, HHS released its own proposal to overhaul privacy restrictions for substance abuse treatment programs of 42 CF Part 2.

Manchin and Capito’s proposal has received overwhelming support from a number of industry stakeholders. Premier called the bill a “carefully balanced approach” that will address care coordination, while strengthening privacy protections.

The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) also supports the bill, saying it “should draw broader support to update privacy protections for patients with substance use disorders.”

“After decades of obstacles to providing coordinated care for these patients, it is critical that barriers from outdated laws be removed, which this bill would do,” a NAACOS spokesperson said in a statement. “While this won’t provide full alignment with HIPAA that NAACOS has been pushing for, it would make an important update to improve the treatment of patients with substance use disorder.”

“Accountable care organizations and their clinicians have largely been blind to the medical history of their patients because they were made responsible for patients’ care but only give part of their data,” they added. “Moving to a system that better pays for quality and value requires well-coordinated care, and providers must be given a better understanding of their populations, while respecting patient privacy.”

Assignment:

Recall that healthcare policy tends to change when a problem reaches a critical point and has become so significant that the general public is moved to request and support legislation to address and, hopefully, resolve it.

After you've reviewed the short article that is in our reading material for this week - and consider the proposed regulations that we looked at last week, think about the implications of the existing regulatory changes and the newly proposed legislation.

In our discussion, answer the following questions:

(a) Do you think that the problem can be addressed by changing the regulation or would you agree with Senators Manchin and Capito that a new statute is needed? What's the difference between a statute and a regulation?

(b) If you are a therapist who treats patients with substance use problems, what ethical concerns might you have about allowing this data to be shared without a patient's authorization? Would your concerns increase if minors who are substance abusers are involved?

(c) If you wanted to voice your opinion on the proposed bill, how would you do that?

Your Leadership in the organization to design and develop a global human resources strategic plan What is the role of the organization in the current global economy? Why? What is professional cultural competence among personnel? Why?

Question one: (Word count 200 words)

Imagine you are a manager in an organization and one of your employee is in a meeting with you to discuss a situation that he faces at work:

“Sir, can I have 10 minutes of your time? ….. My name is Racha and I’m facing a problem with one of my colleague Ahmed , we are supposed to be working together on a project to market and sell one of our brands, one of our potential customer was asking for detailed information and presentation of our brand product, Ahmed and myself discussed what to do on the phone the beginning of the week to prepare the presentation and to divide the work between us, I believe that we agreed on who is going to do what in the presentation and on parts of the required written document to be sent to the customer.

The set date to meet with the customer is at the end of the week-after two days- I called Ahmed yesterday to make sure that his part is done to add to my part to complete the document and the presentation, but when I called him to inquire about work, he answered me in a way I didn’t like, and said that some of that we agreed on-in our phone conversation- was not his responsibility and it was my responsibility – although I recall from our conversation- that it is his responsibility not mine.

Also he talked to me in a way – I don’t sir how to describe it- like he is ordering me to do things, this is how I felt it.

I think I did my part and he is not working enough to complete his, and now I have to do his part and it is huge and I can’t finish it in two days or we have to postpone the meeting with the client and might lose the contract.

I feel that I’m being treated in a different way than my other male colleagues in the team, although I work very hard and this not fair to be judged in this way because I’m a female employee.

1. Use and apply active listening guidelines to solve this situation- use examples from the case.
2. In your opinion why we use active listening in the above situation- use examples related to the case above.

A process that is producing approximately 10% defects is being reviewed as a candidate for SPC charting. After consideration the quality control engineer concludes that it is cheaper to rework the defective parts than submit the process to the necessary destructive testing to study characteristics in question properly. If this person were your boss, how would you convince him to do the testing, or would you agree with his decision?

DUROT is a producer of specialized, patented, industrial-strength sanitizing equipment used by hospitals/healthcare centers, nursing homes, long term care centers and assisted living facilities throughout the United States. Due to the recent pandemic, the company is seeing a significant surge in its demand nationwide. The company anticipates the domestic regional demand for 2021 to be as follows: South – 1.8 million units; Midwest – 1.2 million units; East – 1.1 million units; West – 1 million units

Senior management of DUROT is designing their supply chain network and have identified four potential plant locations – Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Saint Louis and Los Angeles. Each location can have a capacity of either 2 million or 4 million units depending on the size of the plant.

The annual fixed costs for the 4 potential locations, and the production and shipping costs to each regional market from these plants are as follows

The objective here is to minimize the total network cost including fixed cost and production and shipping costs. The management is interested in finding out which plants should be opened and at what capacity - Small (2 million) or Large (4 million).

Prepare an excel sheet with solver, that include the objective function, decision variables and all the constraints.

1. Fitts' Law states that the time spent to acquire a target is a function of its distance from the starting point and its size.

a. True

b. False

2. Steering law says pointing time depends on the distance to be traveled and the width of the path.

a. True

b. False

3. The shortest time a visual stimulus can be shown and still affect us is five seconds.

a. True

b. False

4. The cause-effect interval is 140 milliseconds.

a. True

b. False

Many consumers are shopping in bulk to stock enough supplies for “stay at home” period and many stores has faced difficulties in providing necessary products. Many services are suspended till the further notice, and many online/offline sellers have taken advantage of this historical moment by limiting the supply and increasing the price dramatically.

As a marketer, how do you interpret consumer behavior and the opportunistic behavior of marketers?

What do you suggest to the government and policymakers?    

2-Each student will prepare an 8-12 page research paper (2-3 pages for each question): double-spaced, Times New Roman and 12-point font.

3-Originality is a “must” in research. Therefore, use your own words when answering questions - DO NOT copy text from your book or any other source. Copied answers will result in a zero on this assessment.

4-Use references, if needed. Please use APA format when citing sources.

The coronavirus is hitting businesses and their employees. Some businesses are still open and millions of employees are working to serve customers. Some of the employees work in their workplaces while some others work from home. Almost all employees worry whether they will lose their jobs or if they will have a pay cut. It is obvious that unemployment will rise because millions of employees will lose their jobs and the remaining employees may have a pay cut (10, 20, 30, 50%) depending on the position in his/her workplace. Because of the coronavirus, the business environment has started to change. It is becoming a challenging fast-changing environment. Currently, many managers are faced with difficulties. In the near future and in the long run, they will need to deal with important issues. Lastly, you have to remember that one can easily manage firms during prosperous times but effective managers flourish during difficult times.Below is a sample list of terms that you can use when answering the questions. Job security and protection; Employee morale; Employee stress; Anxiety; Employee wellness; Effective decision making; Work performance; Key competencies; Productive employees; Quality of work produced; Work-life balance; Mental health; Employees in a high-risk health category; Illness; Government sector; Health sector; Security forces.

Q1-What should managers do to manage employees and minimize the negative effects of the coronavirus on employees? Discuss the major OB issues faced by managers when dealing with employees who are currently working and the major OB issues that managers need to handle in the near future.

Q2-What would be the possible changes and developments in the workforce and workplace diversity in the near future and in the long run? Discuss.

Q3-How should managers handle an employee that is unable to work due to age or health issues?

Q4-What kind of expertise, knowledge, skills and abilities will be needed from employees in the near future and in the long run? Discuss.

Q5-What should managers do to increase the job satisfaction of currently working employees? Discuss.

Q6-Discuss how to deal with emotions that can arise from the current situation and how to stay emotionally healthy during the coronavirus outbreak.

Decentralized warehousing system is consistent with:

Group of answer choices

A. Lower safety stocks required, Shorter lead times

B. Higher safety stocks required, Longer lead times

C. Higher safety stocks required, Shorter lead times

D. Lower safety stocks required, Longer lead times

A Manufacturing Company produces three types of expresso machines: Grade-A model, Grade-B model, and Grade C model. The Grade-A model is sold at a unit price of $750 per unit; Grade-B model is sold at $600 per unit; Grade-C model is sold at $450 per unit. XYZ requires 25lb of steel and 5 labor hours to manufacture a Grade-A machine requires, 22lb of steel and 4 labor hours for a Grade-B machine, and 20lb of steel and 3 labor hours for a Grade-C machine. A total of 6000lb of steel and 1500 hours are available. If any Grade-A machine is produced, an equipment cost of $20,000 is incurred; if any Grade-B machine is produced, an equipment cost of $18,000 is incurred; if any Grade-C machine is produced, an equipment cost of $15,000 is incurred.

1. What is the effective capacity for each model of expresso machine, respectively?

2. In the optimal solution, which type(s) machine will be manufactured? What is the optimal production quantity? What is the optimal profit?

Write your thoughts on this discussion.

Estimating the product demand for a product is extremely crucial to a business for several reasons. Those in charge of a business hold the responsibility of keeping that business profitable in the short and long term. In order for a business to be profitable, they must be able to accurately assess product demand for each item that is being marketed in order to cut out excess costs involved with overproduction. It is crucial for companies to understand the factors affecting their product demand. For starters, increasing a products price will inherently lower product demand if all other factors remain the same. However, certain elements such as income level, the size of the consumer population, complementary and substitute goods present in the market, and variations in consumer preferences and taste can all have major influences on the demand curve (Samuelson & Marks, 2015). Another factor that may have an effect on product demand is price elasticity, which basically gauges the consumers response to price changes. As stated earlier, increasing price typically decreases demand. Although, if a product is inelastic, like say the Apple iPhone, a business can essentially raise the price a little each year and maintain strong sales with little decease in quantity.

One example where a business failed to adequately estimate demand is in the mid 2000s when Blockbuster, a video rental company, decided that having physical brick and motor locations were going to remain in demand even after the digital age of streaming was taking off. Although blockbuster had weathered the storm in the VHS to DVD crossover, they were not able to maintain profitability when companies such as Netflix offered services that allowed people to receive DVDs by mail and also eventually stream movies. Blockbuster likely though that they had enough brand loyalty seeing they had dominated the video rental market for several years. However, their inability to predict the demand of a physical store for pickup and drop-off of rental DVDs, ultimately cost them everything.

Define Utilitarianism, Ethical egoism, Virtue Ethics , Right Ethics, Duty Ethics.

How ethical frameworks interlap with management issues and bad decisions.

How ethical frameworks help improve a business or organization. Simple terms please.