Hospital collective bargaining: structure and process.

The increasing influence of third parties on collective bargaining has continued to interest labor relations practitioners. The authors discusses the role of third-party payers and state regulatory agencies in labor-management negotiations at voluntary hospitals. Highlighted is the bargaining strategy adopted by negotiators when collective bargaining operates under a prospective rate-setting system. Also presented are the economic variables by which the payers influence hospital-union relationships and their effect on the outcomes of bargaining. The author describes the political context of health-care bargaining and the growing significance of cost control on hospital negotiations. He concludes that third-party payers cause health-care bargaining to change from a bilateral structure to a multilateral dimension.     

试论冲突中的集体谈判

在社会转型、经济转轨的特殊时期,我国各地相继出现了不同程度、不同方式的用人单位与劳动者之间的冲突。本文从集体谈判的视角探索了解决冲突的制度路径。即对集体谈判的内涵进行界定,分析我国推行集体谈判制度的现状及推行中遇到的各种约束性条件,对其社会安全阀的本质进行阐释,指出推行该项制度的重要性、紧迫性,在此基础上,提出改进的对策和建议。     

Physician collective bargaining: all eyes are on Texas

In June of 1999, Texas became the first state to pass a law allowing physicians to collectively bargain with managed care plans for fee-related activities. Whether this law will give physicians renewed control over patient care remains to be seen. Notwithstanding the intention of its drafters, it is likely that the law and its proposed regulations may only provide physicians with costly and time-consuming procedures that present multiple risks instead of renewed power.     

Technology transfer: A look at the federal sector

An important resource in the search for solutions to serious issues confronting the United States is the science and technology which result from Federally funded research and development. To obtain the optimum return on this significant investment requires that the resultant technology be adapted for secondary utilization and/or be transferred to primary and secondary users. This article describes the magnitude and scope of Federally sponsored research and development and describes the major Federal technology transfer efforts. While present technology transfer efforts, mostly passive, are necessary, there is need for more active methods. The Federal government is seeking ways to improve its technology transfer effort. General agreement on the following actions appears to exist: Stronger support by Federal research and development management, and increased commitment of personnel and funding to the Federal technology transfer effort.     

Fringe benefits: The hidden costs of unionization and collective bargaining in corrections

Public Sector Unionization is a phenomenon characterized by rapid growth. Many studies have found, however, that the pay differential between unionized and non-unionized public sector employees is relatively small. This study posits the theory that one possible explanation is that unionized public sector employees are making gains in an area where the cost of concessions is somewhat hidden. Specifically, that unionized public sector employees enjoy a substantial lead in number of fringe benefits. The public sector area chosen for study is that of corrections. A questionnaire was constructed and mailed to all 50 state correctional systems assessing whether or not employees received 35 fringe benefits. The fringe benefits are divided into five categories and reported in tabular form. In addition, the fringe benefits are examined as a composite index and a comparison is then made between unionized and non-unionized employees. The results clearly show that unionized correctional employees have a considerable advantage in the number of fringe benefits enjoyed.     

Public sector innovation: the effect of universities

A growing literature in public management has identified the key role that innovation can play in enhancing agency efficiency, effectiveness, performance and legitimacy. However, considerably less is known about the actual sources of knowledge generating innovative activity in the public sector. This paper fills this crucial gap in the literature by explicitly analyzing the link between a key source of knowledge and ideas, universities, and the innovative activities of public organizations. By utilizing a new source of data, this paper is able to show that not only do universities play a key role in generating innovative activity in public organizations, but the nature of innovations and their impact on public sector performance are related to the role played by universities. The findings suggest that universities play a key role in generating innovative activity in public organizations as doing so can increase the quality of public services, employee job satisfaction, and interagency collaboration.

     

The influence of collective bargaining on large police agency salaries: 1990–2000

Collective bargaining between police management and unions is an important process that determines many aspects of police work, particularly the monetary benefits for line officers like salary and fringe benefits. Working with limited budgets, police administrators who engage in collective bargaining are obligated to negotiate with union representatives over wage benefits while attempting to maintain adequate financial resources toward other police operations. Though students of policing learn that police unions try very hard to increase economic reward for their members there is limited research on the effectiveness of their efforts. Since economic benefits are the primary focus of police unions, it is important; therefore, to evaluate the impact that collective bargaining has on salaries earned by police personnel. This study examines this issue by combining four waves of the Law Enforcement Management and Administration Statistics for the period 1990–2000. Pooled time series analyses reveal that large organizations that engaged in collective bargaining had higher minimum wages for officers during the period. As predicted, collective bargaining did not affect minimum chief’s salaries.     

The role of criminal record in the federal sentencing guidelines

In this paper my concern is with the collective moral responsibility of criminal investigators for the outcomes of their investigations, bearing in mind that it is important to distinguish collective moral responsibility from, and relate it to, individual moral responsibility. In what sense, if any, are police detectives individually and collectively morally responsible for their success (or, for that matter, their failure) in gathering sufficient evidence to identify, arrest, and charge an offender who has committed a serious crime? Alternatively, in what sense are they morally responsible in cases where they identify, arrest, and charge an innocent person? And in what sense, if any, are police detectives individually and collectively morally responsible for the ultimate outcome of the trial, the finding by the courts of someone they have investigated and charged with a serious crime to be guilty or innocent?     

Public sector primary care and Medicaid: trading accessibility for mainstreaming

Facilities operated by public and nonprofit agencies have become increasingly important sources of primary care for Medicaid patients. These facilities are particularly important sources of care in segregated, competitive urban areas, where they are more geographically accessible than many private physicians and expand the availability of care to Medicaid patients rather than substituting for care provided by private physicians. In rural areas, in contrast, the availability of care from public facilities appears to reduce the level of care Medicaid patients receive from private physicians in the counties where these facilities are located. These findings suggest that policymakers can expand urban Medicaid patients' access to care by spending on public care, but at the cost of increasing the segregation of Medicaid patients into a two-tier system of care.     

The Czech transition banking sector instability: the role of operational cost management

In this article we show—using the estimated cost efficiency of banks—that besides the risk (proxied by the share of non-performing loans), the quality of operational cost management was an equally important determinant of bank failure risk during the decade of banking sector transformation in the Czech Republic.

Limitation on federal participation for capital expenditures; policy on lack of timely notice: Public Health Service. Final rule

This notice revises the Policy on Lack of Timely Notice under section 1122 of the Social Security Act, published in the Federal Register on January 26, 1977 (42 CFR part 4847).