Service provider

About: Service provider is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 55107 publications have been published within this topic receiving 894381 citations. The topic is also known as: external service provider & internal service provider.

Long-Term Care Providers and services users in the United States: data from the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers, 2013-2014.

Abstract: Long-term care services provided by paid, regulated providers are an important component of personal health care spending in the United States. This report presents the most current national descriptive results from the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (NSLTCP), which is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Data presented are drawn from multiple sources, primarily NCHS surveys of adult day services centers and residential care communities (covers 2014 data year); and administrative records obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) on home health agencies, hospices, and nursing homes (covers 2013 and 2014 data years). This report provides information on the supply, organizational characteristics, staffing, and services offered by paid, regulated providers of long-term care services; and the demographic, health, and functional composition of users of these services. Services users include residents of nursing homes and residential care communities, patients of home health agencies and hospices, and participants of adult day services centers. This report updates "Long-Term Care Services in the United States: 2013 Overview" (available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nsltcp/long_term_care_services_2013.pdf), which covered data years 2011 and 2012. In contrast, the title of this report and future reports will reflect the years of the data used rather than the publication year, in this case 2013 through 2014. A forthcoming companion product to this report, "Long-Term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States—State Estimates Supplement: National Study of Long-Term Care Providers, 2013–2014," contains tables and maps showing comparable state estimates for the national findings in this report, and will be available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ nsltcp/nsltcp_products.htm.

Service Clues and Customer Assessment of the Service Experience: Lessons from Marketing

Abstract: Executive Overview Because customers' assessment of services is based on performances rather than objects, they rely on the numerous clues that are embedded in performance when choosing services and evaluating service experiences. Indeed, it is often small clues that influence a customer's overall perception of an experience. Customers form perceptions based on the technical performance of the service (functional clues), the tangibles associated with the service (mechanic clues), and the behavior and appearance of service providers (humanic clues). Functional, mechanic, and humanic clues play specific roles in creating the customer's service experience, influencing both rational and emotional perceptions of service quality. Clearly and consistently designing and orchestrating clues is a critical management responsibility; businesses need to be “clue conscious” and add “clue management” to their job descriptions.

Method for billing IP broadband subscribers

Abstract: A method of billing a variable bit rate communication between a first terminal and a distant terminal to a broadband subscriber permits changing billing parameters during a call in real time in response to user inputs including user requested changes in quality of service, changes in data rate and changes in preferred service provider. A variable bit rate communication to be billed has a variable quality of service related to the degree of utilization of a plurality of different networks. The billing method comprises the steps of i.) receiving user identification data at a first terminal and data representing a required bit rate and a default quality of service selected by the user, ii.) verifying the user identification data to be associated with the broadband service subscriber, iii.) determining least cost alternative network resources available for achieving the communication at the user selected default quality of service and the required bit rate, iv.) determining cost data associated with the network resources, v.) outputting to the user a least cost for the communication according to their selected default quality of service and alternative least cost network resources, vi.) coupling the first terminal and the distant terminal via the least cost determined network resources at the default quality of service and the required bit rate responsive to user authorization and vii.) billing for the communication at the default quality of service and according to the required bit rate after the termination of the communication.

Payments for environmental services and the poor: concepts and preliminary evidence

Abstract: Based on observations from all three tropical continents, there is good reason to believe that poor service providers can broadly gain access to payment for environmental services (PES) schemes, and generally become better off from that participation, in both income and non-income terms. However, poverty effects need to be analysed in a conceptual framework looking not only at poor service providers, but also at poor service users and non-participants. Effects on service users are positive if environmental goals are achieved, while those on non-participants can be positive or negative. The various participation filters of a PES scheme contain both pro-poor and anti-poor selection biases. Quantitative welfare effects are bound to remain small-scale, compared to national poverty-alleviation goals. Some pro-poor interventions are possible, but increasing regulations excessively could curb PES efficiency and implementation scale, which could eventually harm the poor. Prime focus of PES should thus remain on the environment, not on poverty.

Can ISPS and P2P users cooperate for improved performance

Abstract: Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, which are realized as overlays on top of the underlying Internet routing architecture, contribute a significant portion of today's Internet traffic. While the P2P users are a good source of revenue for the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the immense P2P traffic also poses a significant traffic engineering challenge to the ISPs. This is because P2P systems either implement their own routing in the overlay topology or may use a P2P routing underlay [1], both of which are largely independent of the Internet routing, and thus impedes the ISP's traffic engineering capabilities. On the other hand, P2P users are primarily interested in finding their desired content quickly, with good performance. But as the P2P system has no access to the underlying network, it either has to measure the path performance itself or build its overlay topology agnostic of the underlay. This situation is disadvantageous for both the ISPs and the P2P users.To overcome this, we propose and evaluate the feasibility of a solution where the ISP offers an "oracle" to the P2P users. When the P2P user supplies the oracle with a list of possible P2P neighbors, the oracle ranks them according to certain criteria, like their proximity to the user or higher bandwidth links. This can be used by the P2P user to choose appropriate neighbors, and therefore improve its performance. The ISP can use this mechanism to better manage the immense P2P traffic, e.g., to keep it inside its network, or to direct it along a desired path. The improved network utilization will also enable the ISP to provide better service to its customers.