One critical health plan decision concerns choosing an original Medicare plan or a Medicare managed care plan. Evidence suggests that people are confused by the phrase "Original Medicare plan." Using focus group and Q-sort methodology, the authors sought to identify a name for the Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) product. Two key insights were gained. First, participants used the word "Medicare" ...

The predominant mechanisms for helping users find products in electronic catalogs are hierarchical navigation and text-based searches. Advanced electronic product catalogs also offer support for feature-based search or interactive product configuration. However, these search mechanisms are only appropriate if the space of products to be presented conforms to a number of simplifying restrictions...

OBJECTIVES To understand the acceptability of, and willingness to pay for, community health insurance coverage among residents of rural India. METHODS We conducted a mixed methods study of 33 respondents located in 8 villages in southern India. Interview domains focused on health-seeking behaviors of the family for primary healthcare, household expenditures on primary healthcare, interest in ...

This research study aims at developing and validating CRM scale for Indian insurance sector. A robust scale development methodology is followed which ultimately results into Six-factor CRM scale comprising of claim payment security, product knowledge, personalization, transparency in product selling and service quality. The generalizability of the proposed scale can be tested by replicating the...

Abstract We identify major drivers of the demand for credit insurance, using a worldwide survey among banking executives in structured commodity trade finance business. Our results show that bank’s propensity to purchase insurance increases its experience and expertise with product, impact coverage on balance sheet, risk underlying transaction, as well intensity broker relationships. Other fact...

This paper reports estimates of overall and product specific economies of scale, as well as, economies of scope for the main outputs of the life insurance industry. In addition, the paper presents a number of structural tests of the production technology. The results indicate that the estimated cost function satisfies the regularity conditions, and that the industry exhibits overall and product...

Four theories on the economic rationale for warranty provision have been proposed in the literature: (1) Warranties provide insurance to customers and work as a risk-sharing mechanism, (2) warranties are a sorting mechanism and work as a means for second-degree price discrimination among customers with different risk preferences, (3) warranties work as a signal of product quality to consumers u...