National health insurance, which was implemented since 1995, have not only provided basic health care for our citizen, but reduced financial burden of them. This achievement was outstanding, though its financial deterioration has been a difficult issue. The authorities of national health insurance have implemented lots of intervention to reduce the increasing medical expense. Balance billing project was one of the policies to achieve both fairness and justice. The purposes of this research included understanding the relationships between balance billing and the characteristics of patients. The Andersen¡¦s health behavior model was the conceptual framework for this study. The questionnaires were collected at a medical center in Kaohsiung between February and May in 2009. 450 questionnaires were collected with 399 copies were effective (response rate 88.66%). The characteristic and the attitude towards balance billing system such as medical quality, medical care and medical expenses from patients were collected. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression were used to analyze this study. The results of this survey are summarized as follows: 1.¡yPredisposing characteristics¡z¡G a. Demographic Gender was significant related to the agreement of the policy of balance billing system. However, there were no statistical difference in age, marriage, and number of family. b. Social structure There were no statistical difference in educational level, occupation, and language. c. Health beliefs Care of health and cognition of balance billing system were significant related to the agreement of the policy of balance billing system. 2.¡yEnabling resources¡z a. Personal / Family resources Family budget and identification was significant related to the agreement of the policy of balance billing system. b. Community resources There were no statistical differences in private insurance and convenience to health care. 3.¡yNeed¡z a. Perceived Awareness and understanding of health condition were significantlyrelated to the agreement of the policy of balance billing system. b. Evaluated Frequency of using health insurance card was significant related to the agreement of the policy of balance billing system. However, there were no statistical differences in major disease care, chronic disease. 4.¡yRapport¡z Reliability to doctor and satisfaction to treatment were significant related to the agreement of the policy of balance billing system. However, there were no statistical difference in loyalty to doctor and satisfaction to doctor. Based on the results from this study, it is certain to conclude that patients of the hospital support (74.2%)the balance billing policy. 64.4% patients understood this policy. Patients who understood the new policy were more likely to support this policy. We encouraged the bureau of National Health Insurance to continue communication with the public and the providers to assure the success of new policy.

Akademisk avhandling--Uppsala. / Extra t.p., with thesis statement, inserted. Summary in German. Bibliography: p. 329-339.

Thesis--Lund University, 1975. / Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. 377-388).

Thesis--Lund University, 1975. / Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. 377-388).

Thesis (M.B.A.)—Boston University

Due to the background discrepancy, the regulations of healthy insurance, and the different situation of medical service, there is different perception of balance billing between patients and physicians. The promotion of balance billing is based on the request by law, paid by the users, and medical budget control, which can lead to lower growth rate of medical fee. The purpose of this study is not only to reveal the difference of perception of balance billing between patients and physicians, but also to find out the relationship between service satisfaction and perception gap. Cross-section research method was used to investigate the opinions of admitted patients and physicians in 65 hospitals, located in southern Taiwan and affiliated with the Bureau of National Health Insurance, by questionnaire during a 2 months period. We¡¦d performed various statistical analyses in order to identify the different perception between patients and physicians, and the relationship between perception gap and medical service satisfaction. After extensive research on the related factors, including medical service situation, individual need, and past experience of patients, we can predict their expectation to balance billing. Besides, the discrepancy of expectation and perception between patients and physicians can cause the satisfaction gap, which may influences medical service satisfaction. Our results provided the related factors of satisfaction to the Bureau of National Health Insurance, in effort to help the promotion of balance billing.

Smart grid is an advanced electrical grid equipped with communication capability which is utilized to improve the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of electricity services. Countries within Europe, North America and East Asia are undergoing a transformation from an antiquated infrastructure to the smart grid. However, some of problems arise due to the security and privacy issues of smart grid. Since smart meters and a grid operator can interact through its communication channel, there is a possibility that a hacker can hack into the system to steal information or even cut off the electricity service. Moreover, people are protesting and refusing to use smart meter since it enables the grid operator to perform frequent meter reading which unveils the customers¡¦ private energy usage information that could be abused. To cope with the privacy issue, we proposed an enhanced version of aggregation protocol from Garcia-Jacobs protocol where our protocol protects not only customers¡¦ energy consumption information but also the consumption information of a neighborhood. Furthermore, we proposed a novel privacy preserving billing protocol based on Priced Oblivious Transfer (POT) protocol which guarantees the grid operator to get the correct amount of money without knowing the individual energy consumption of the customers. Additionally, we also implement our proposed protocols.

Abstract After the National Health Insurance was implemented ,it provides our citizens not only the basic medical treatment but also reduce the financial burden. However, the financial difficulties is becoming worse for National Health Insurance of Taiwan. In order to reduce the medical expenses. The Health Insurance authorities implemented many different policies.Balance billing was one of these interventions. The purposes of this research included to understand the relationships between the balance billing and the characteristics of physicians and patients .Particularly, this research focused on the perceptions of balance billing form the Physicians and hospitalized patients¡¦points of view. The Andersen¡¦s health behavior model was the conceptual framework for this study. The questionnaire was sent out to 200 doctors and 1000 patients in Kaohsiung , Pingtung regional hospitals ,with 101 (response rate 50.6%) and 638 (63.8%)returned , respectively. The characteristic and the attitude towards balance billing system such as medical quality, medical care and medical expenses from both physicians and patients were collected. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression were used to analyze this study. The Results from physicians survey are summarized as follows: 1.There were no statistical significance between the physicians¡¦ characteristics (such as age, gender, and tenure) and the agreement of balance billing .Ninety-four out of 101 physicians agreed on the new policy. 2.There would be no influence of balance billingon the medical care from the perspective of physicians. 3.Physicians who agreed on the viewpoints of paying extra payments would lead to the better treatment were 12 times more likely to accept the balance billing. 4.There were no difference among medical expenditures, the level of understanding, and the policy of balance billing. The results from inpatient survey are summarized as follows: 1. Inpatients demographic characteristics, (such as education¡Boccupation and disease), were significant related to the agreement of the policy of balance billing system. However, there were no statistical difference in age, gender, language, and private insurance. 2.Most inpatients who agreed on the balance billing policy were 1.8 times more to believe that if they paid out-of-pocket, they would gain more medical attention form physicians. 3.Regarding the quality of care, inpatients whoever agreed upon the policy of balance billing would perceive that they would receive 3 to 3.8 times higher quality of care in medical materials and medicine, respectively. 4.The more the agreement of the balance billing policy, the higher the satisfactory. 5.Inpatients who understood the new policy were more likely to pay extra payment. Based on the results from this study, it is certain to conclude that both the doctors and inpatient of the region hospital are supporting the balance billing policy .The average score of the inpatient questionnaire is 3.305.And 93.1% of the surveyed. Doctors accepted the policy of balance billing. We encouraged the bureau of National Health Insurance to continuing communication with the public and the providers to assure the success of new policy.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / This thesis deals with the design of a business model for rural telephony based on a wireless mesh network for a rural community, the Mankosi community, located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Its aim is to understand the social, economic and technical issues that are involved in the adoption of information and communication technologies for development and how they relates to trust in e-services. Externally funded projects tend to be expensive and are often unsustainable once the external funding ceases. The cost of a mesh network (once implemented) is almost negligible, apart from its maintenance. The pillars of the project are sustainability and community ownership, and the aim was to design the wireless mesh network, provide telephony service to the community and use solar power to charge mobile phones. The community leaders of Mankosi indicated that they do not want the service to be completely free, but would charge a small fee for each call in order to generate the funds needed for the maintenance of the system. In order to do so, a prototype billing system was configured and adapted to the needs and expectations of the community. The principles and steps of soft systems methodology were used to manage the research process of this case study. This methodology was a powerful tool to carry out the research and address the research problem in a participative way with the stakeholders. The participatory design process used in the design phase of the project had the added advantage that the community understood the purpose of the network, and since they contributed to its design, they felt that they owned it and could trust its billing system. A further benefit was that a core group of participants were committed to the project and felt that the overall quality of community members' lives would be improved by it and similar projects. The process contributed to the personal development of the participants by giving the community a voice and sense of power – the ability to change things – and it vastly expanded community members’ vision of what they are capable of. It was found that the current means of communication, i.e. using mobile phones, is expensive for local users in relation to their average income. The proposed billing system – designed with the help of the community – will be trusted by the community and provide Mankosi with a low-cost communication system by making use of the existing experimental mesh network. The community will be able to sustain their network with the income generated. The network will in future provide access to the Internet and will be able to handle breakout calls to external networks.

Ingeniero Civil Eléctrico / Con el explosivo desarrollo de la tecnología solar fotovoltaica a nivel mundial, y con las actuales políticas eléctricas y medioambientales en el marco nacional, se hace evidente un aumento progresivo de inserción de energías limpias a la matriz energética. Bajo este escenario, como una medida a favor de la autosustentabilidad y el desarrollo de energías renovables en el país, entra en vigencia en septiembre del año 2014 la ley 20.571 o ley Net Billing , que otorga a los clientes de empresas distribuidoras el derecho a generar y consumir energía en base a fuentes renovables no convencionales y de cogeneración eficiente, e inyectar los excedentes que estos puedan generar a la red, siendo recompensados por la energía que aportan al sistema. Dentro de este contexto nace la interrogante de si es conveniente modelar sistemas fotovoltaicos bajo perfiles de consumo específicos, y si esto entrega información diferente, adicional o mayores beneficios económicos frente al análisis en base a promedios o curvas de consumo típicas Este trabajo consiste en la construcción de una herramienta que permite evaluar económicamente, calculando la tasa interna de retorno (TIR), sistemas fotovoltaicos bajo perfiles de consumo diarios y anuales, con información previa sobre los niveles de radiación, las tarifas, los costos de inversión y parámetros globales de los componentes del sistema. Con el desarrollo de esta herramienta, posteriormente se añade la opción de calcular de manera simplificada, el tamaño de sistema que maximiza la TIR o que optimiza económicamente el sistema FV. Se hace el estudio y modelamiento del perfil de consumo de 5 clientes de la región metropolitana, los que cuentan con tarifa tipo BT1 y distintas cantidades de uso de energía. Estos perfiles se utilizan para hacer los análisis de los resultados y las comparaciones entregadas por la herramienta. Finalmente se demuestra la utilidad de contar con una herramienta adaptada al sector residencial, que permita determinar la potencia de un sistema fotovoltaico que entregue los mayores beneficios a cada cliente, según su perfil de consumo.