Enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans in rural areas grew more than 50% in the first three quarters of 2007 and has more than tripled since the inception of the MA program at the beginning of 2006. However, rural enrollment remains well below urban enrollment as a percentage of the eligible population. This brief updates early findings from analysis of the Medicare+Choice/MA program prese...

This is a case study of industrial systems development. In the project studied, an advanced computer application was developed with the intention of supporting complex, cooperative work. The project participants all viewed the emerging computer application in context. However, different contexts were used by each group of actors. Since the application was placed in contexts well known by the pa...

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 explicitly increased Medicare payments to private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. As a result, every MA plan in the nation is paid more for its enrollees than they would have been expected to cost in traditional fee-for-service Medicare. The authors calculate that payments to MA plans in 2008 will be 12.4 percent greater than the corresponding costs in trad...

The Internet has the potential to fundamentally change the structure of marketing channels, but only if consumers choose to adopt electronic channels. Thus, this paper aims to develop a more nuanced understanding of consumer channel choices. Specifically, it contends that it is important to examine consumers’ intent to adopt electronic channels, not as a monolithic decision, but as a choice the...

Studies of the effect of individual differences on usage of information systems have yielded mixed results. This study examines the effect of individual differences on the perceived relative advantage (a concept akin to perceived usefulness) of using Group Support Systems (GSS) over traditional face-to-face meetings. Specifically, the current field study investigates the effect of oral and writ...

Relative advantage and perceived usefulness are often used interchangeably in the literature. In this paper, the authors argue that this limits the understanding of the adoption of ICTs, especially when there are multiple alternatives. To address this issue, the authors reexamine relative advantage in relation to perceived usefulness, providing a re-specification of relative advantage and empir...