Question

In a capitated health care environment, the risk was on the patient to ensure that they had enough dollars to cover the cost of care for their family or the "covered lives" in their household.

Group of answer choices

True

False

When pharmaceutical companies keep durable medical equipment inventory for when it is needed by the patient, they are providing which utility?

Group of answer choices

Place

Possession

Form

Time

It is important to recognize that the middleman can always be eliminated but the:

Group of answer choices

middleman just assumes another position in the channel.

function will shift to the end user.

channel just reconfigures and the middleman reappears.

functions can never be eliminated.

Answer 1

Answer 1. b. False

A capitated health care environment is a type of health care system in the USA, where the insurance company or health-care association pays a fixed amount per patient per month to the doctor or the hospital. It is an insurance plan, in which the doctor or hospital will be paid flat fees for each patient they cover.

As per the definition, we can say that the above statement is False. Because in this system, the insurance company pays the treatment amount to the hospital or to the doctor. In this system, the financial risk will be transferred from the patient to the healthcare provider (doctor or hospital) and the patient will be provided with the best treatment in a cost-effective manner because the doctor will receive a fixed amount per month for per enrolled patient.

Answer 2. d.Time Utility

Time utility is one of the types of economic utility. Time utility is referred to as the situation when the consumer is provided his desired goods or services when the consumer needs it in an emergency or on an urgent basis. Time utility enables the manufacturing companies to maximize the supply of their products to the customers when consumers have a desire for those products. The companies have to maximize the production cycle and supply chain to make the availability faster to the consumers.

In the above statement, the pharmaceutical companies are keeping durable equipment inventory when the consumers need it, which is an example of fulfilling time utility to the patients. One of the best examples of time utility by the pharmaceutical companies is the availability of ventilators for the patients in the COVID 19 situation,

Answer 3. a. Functions can never be eliminated.

Middleman is another word or intermediary. The main function of the middleman is to provide interaction between manufacturers or consumers. In other words, the middleman provides information about products, prices and other details to the consumers produced by the manufacturers. They also provide consumer needs and preferences to the manufacturers, and the middleman does all these activities for a fee or commission. They are the main part of the supply chain that enables the availability fo the products and services from manufacturers to the consumer.

But we can eliminate the middleman by removing them from the supply-chain or choose other alternatives to available the products from manufacturers to the consumers. But we cannot eliminate their functions. Consumer needs the products and manufacturers want customers for their products. So in this chain, someone else will join this channel but the functions will be the same. For example, before e-commerce, the product will be available from the manufacturer to distributor to wholesaler to retailer to customer. But in the e-commerce era, the product is delivered from manufacturer to distributor to wholesaler to customers via courier services. It is quite possible that in this chain someone can be eliminate but someone else take his position and fill the gap.