Consumer-Directed Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts: Have They Worked for Small Business?

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M Gates ◽  
Kanika Kapur ◽  
Pinar Karaca-Mandic
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Health Plans ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Traditional Health ◽  
Consumer Directed Health Plans

Cost has deterred many small businesses from providing health insurance to their workers. Consumer-directed health plans, which are potentially less costly than traditional health plans, may be well suited to workers in small businesses. We study the factors that are associated with CDHP offering, determine the variation in CDHP offering among large and small firms, and develop models of persistence in CDHP offering. Our analysis of the Kaiser-HRET survey shows that small firms have been no quicker in their uptake of CDHPs than larger firms, and appear to display somewhat more churning in CDHP offering than large firms. Small firms that employ between three and 49 workers are less likely to offer HRA/HSA plans conditional on offering HD plans than large firms. Furthermore, conditional on offering some health insurance, firms that employ 200 to 499 workers appear to be less likely to offer both HRA/HSA plans and HD plans compared to larger firms. Our results suggest a limited role for the current incarnation of consumer-directed health plans in encouraging small business to provide insurance.

Enrollee Incentives in Consumer Directed Health Plans: Spend Now or Save for Later?

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger D Feldman ◽  
Stephen T Parente
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
Health Plans ◽  
Medical Spending ◽  
Traditional Health ◽  
Large Employer ◽  
Consumer Directed Health Plans ◽  
Period Model

We propose a model of enrollee incentives in consumer directed health plans (CDHPs) and estimate the model with data from a large employer that offered a CDHP in addition to two traditional health insurance plans. In the CDHP a portion of the enrollee's pretax compensation is placed in an account that can be used to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses or rolled over to the next year. In a multi-period model, healthy employees should save part of the account to pay for future medical contingencies. We measured health status by the employee's predicted medical spending in the year prior to the CDHP offering. We found that healthy CDHP enrollees tended to spend less in three post-enrollment years than a comparison group of healthy employees who elected to keep their traditional health insurance coverage. However, CDHP enrollees with high predicted spending—a measure of poorer health—spent more than their comparison group of traditional health insurance enrollees in the following three years.

Consumer-directed Health Plans With Health Savings Accounts

Medical Care ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 585-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Reed ◽  
Ilana Graetz ◽  
Huihui Wang ◽  
Vicki Fung ◽  
Joseph P. Newhouse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Plans ◽  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Consumer Directed Health Plans

The World of Small Business: A Suggested Typology

1977 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee E. Preston
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Industrial Area ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Industrial Activities ◽  
The World ◽  
New Business ◽  
Post Industrial

Detailed study of a sample of more than 200 originally-small firms in a single major industrial area, plus an examination of new business successes as identified by Fortune, reveals five major types of small enterprises, only a minority of which can be described as successful “post-industrial” activities based on new areas of knowledge and new sources of demand. By far the overwhelming portion of the firms studied were found to be operating within traditional “small business industries”, in highly specialized activities with very small total demand, and in satellite roles to major industries or large firms.

Prediction model of business success or failure for Palestinian small enterprises in the West Bank

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir D. Baidoun ◽  
Robert N. Lussier ◽  
Maisa Burbar ◽  
Sawsan Awashra
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
West Bank ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Business Failure ◽  
Business Success ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Random Guessing

Purpose The aim of this study is to examine the factors that lead to success or failure of a small business in the West Bank of Palestine. Design/methodology/approach This study methodology is a survey research, testing the Lussier model of business success and failure with a sample of 246 small businesses (90 failed and 156 successful) to better understand the reasons of their success or failure using logistic regression statistical analysis. Findings The model is significant (p = 0.000); it will predict a group of businesses as successful or failed more accurately than random guessing 99 per cent of the time. The model will also predict a specific small firm as successful or failed 94 per cent of the time vs. 50 per cent for random guessing. The r-square is very high (r = 0.70), indicating that the model variables are, in fact, significant predictors of success or failure. Results indicate that having adequate capital, keeping good records with financial controls, making plans and getting professional advice on how to manage the firm are the most important factors for the viability and success of small businesses. Practical implications With the high rate of small business failure globally, results of this study provide a list of variables that contribute to the success of small firms. Firms that focus on these important factors will increase their odds of success. Thus, avoiding failure, firms better utilize resources that contribute to economic growth. Originality/value This is the first study that looks at success and failure of small businesses in Palestine. There is no one single accepted theory that may be applied to small businesses. This paper aims to further contribute to the global validity of Lussier success and failure model moving toward a theory to better understand why some businesses succeed and others fail.

scholarly journals Effects of public procurement of R&D on the innovation process: evidence from the UK small business research initiative

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kostas Selviaridis
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Market Failure ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Business Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Initiative ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The study aims to investigate how pre-commercial procurement (PCP) influences the activities, capabilities and behaviours of actors participating in the innovation process. Unlike much of PCP research underpinned by a market failure theoretical framework that evaluates the additionality of innovation inputs and outputs, this paper focusses on the role and capacity of PCP in addressing systemic failures impeding the process of innovation. Design/methodology/approach PCP effects on the innovation process were studied through a qualitative study of the UK small business research initiative (SBRI) programme. Data collection comprised 33 semi-structured interviews with key informants within 30 organisations and analysis of 80-plus secondary data sources. Interviewees included executives of technology-based small businesses, managers within public buying organisations and innovation policymakers and experts. Findings The UK SBRI improves connectivity and instigates research and development (R&D) related interactions and cooperation. Through securing government R&D contracts, small firms access relevant innovation ecosystems, build up their knowledge and capabilities and explore possible routes to market. Public organisations use the SBRI to connect to innovative small firms and access their sets of expertise and novel ideas. They also learn to appreciate the strategic role of procurement. Nonetheless, SBRI-funded small business face commercialisation and innovation adoption challenges because of institutional constraints pertaining to rules, regulations and public-sector norms of conduct. Research limitations/implications The study contributes to existing PCP research by demonstrating innovation process-related effects of PCP policies. It also complements literature on small business-friendly public procurement measures by highlighting the ways through which PCP, rather than commercial procurement procedures, can support the development of small businesses other than just facilitating their access to government (R&D) contracts. Social implications The study identifies several challenge areas that policymakers should address to improve the implementation of the UK SBRI programme. Originality/value The study demonstrates the effects of PCP on the activities, capabilities and behaviours of small businesses and public buying organisations involved in the innovation process.

THE ROLE OF FAMILY START UPS IN THE EMERGENCE OF A SMALL BUSINESS SECTOR IN BULGARIA

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (03) ◽  
pp. 351-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
DENISE FLETCHER ◽  
EMIL HELIENEK ◽  
ZVETA ZAFIROVA
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Family ◽  
Start Ups

It is widely reported that entrepreneurial activity has a significant role to play in transition economies such as Central and Eastern Europe but little is known about the role that the family unit plays in facilitating small business emergence in the former command economies. This is surprising given that the link between family and small business development has been widely researched in market economies. In this study, attention is drawn to the role that family relations and resources play in small business emergence. The study focuses on Bulgaria, a country in the Balkans with much cultural diversity and which became a European Union member in 2007–8. Analysis is undertaken of research material drawn from a survey of 69 small firms. 42% of the surveyed firms are two generation businesses involving the entrepreneur and children or parents. 35% of the businesses are three generation businesses involving the lead entrepreneur, parents, children and siblings. The remaining 33% are firms that are run by couples and/or siblings. This suggests that the family household is the key channel for (and of) small business formation. In neglecting the role of family start-ups, this gives a false understanding to the role that households and families sometimes contribute to the economy. At the same time, it is also partly because of this dependency on family relations and resources that small businesses become rooted in the 'informal economy' — an economy that is based on family favours and which it is difficult to break out of.

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