Problem
Nowadays, the issues of health care and insurance in this sphere are very significant as far as the growing number of natural and technological disasters and armed conflicts bring more people to the need of an effective health care system and health insurance industry.
To make their work more efficient, in 2007 insurance companies have implemented the personal health record (PHR) that is planned to make the data about every patient accessible if he or she changes the insurance company and there is no need to waste time for creating another health record. Also, electronic prescription of medicine was invented to make the work of doctors easier and more accessible for patients. Moreover, usage of innovative technology is said to make the health care and insurance affordable for a larger number of people in the country (Ignagni, pp. 15 – 17).
Purpose
The purpose of the research plan is to study the relations between modern technology and efficiency of health insurance industry work in the context of implementation of innovative ways of processing information and access to the health care system. This will be a qualitative research, so the main emphasis will be given to the exact data collected by the methods stipulated below. It will include the independent and dependent variables and the importance of such factors as geographical location and population for getting the objective results of the research (Cooper, p. 12).
Research Questions
The research questions are more detailed reflection of the purpose of the research stated above. The main research question is: Is the use of modern technology and innovations helpful for the increase of efficiency of health insurance industry? While the sub-questions are: What is the aim of technology use in the insurance industry? and What are the results of the use of technology by the health insurance companies?
Hypotheses
Hypotheses will specify the purpose of the research and try to answer the research question by means of making dual assumptions and collect data for them in two contrasted situations – before and after the start of use of modern technology. Thus, the hypotheses of the research are: “Modern technology increases the efficiency of health insurance” and “Modern technology does not increase the efficiency of health insurance”. The independent variable will be the use of modern technology, while the dependant variable will be the growth of insurance industry efficiency after this step.
Research Methodology and Design
As far as it is a qualitative research, the methods used to carry it out are also qualitative. The majority of the data for the research will be collected by means of conducting case studies of the state of health insurance industry before and after implementation of innovative technology in it.
Another source of data will be conducting direct interviews with workers of insurance industry and patients. Statistical information will also be of great help to complete the qualitative research and to support the results of the research whichever they will be (Creswell, p. 23). Geographical factor is rather significant, so the data from different regions of the USA will be collected and considered in order to see certain rules and trends, if any. The factor of population will also be considered with the same purposes, and the combination of all the activities will allow getting the most objective research results.
References
Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (2003). Business research methods. The McGraw-Hill/Irwin series operations and decision sciences 8th.
Creswell, J. W. (2005). Educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill.
Ignagni, K. (2007). Technology, Innovation Enable Health Insurers To Address Challenges. Insurance & Technology.