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Background: Day admission surgery (DAS) is meant to provide a better in-hospital experience for patients and to save costs by reducing the length of stay. However, in a prospective payment system, it may also reduce the reimbursement amount, leading to unintended incentives for hospitals. Methods: Over a 4-month period in 2021 and based on predefined clinical and logistic criteria, patients from different surgical sub-specialties were identified to follow the institutional DAS program. Revenue-analysis was performed, considering the Swiss diagnosis-related group (SwissDRG) prospective payment policy. Revenue with DAS program was compared to revenue if patients were admitted the day prior surgery (No DAS) using nonparametric pooled bootstrap t -test. All other costs considered identical, an estimation of the average cost spared due to the avoidance of pre-operative hospitalization in the DAS setting was carried out using a micro-costing approach. Results: Overall, 105 inpatients underwent DAS over the study period, totaling a revenue of CHF 1 209 840. Among them, 25 patients (24%) were low outliers due to the day spared from the DAS program and triggering a mean (SD) financial discount of Swiss Francs (CHF) 4192 (2835), yielding a total amount of CHF 105 435. DAS revealed a mean revenue of CHF 7320 (656), compared to CHF 11 510 (1108) if patients were admitted the day before surgery (No DAS, P =.007). Conclusion: In a PPS, anticipation of financial penalties when implementing a DAS for all-comers is key to prevent an imbalance of the hospital equation if no financial criteria are used to select eligible patients. Promptly revising workflow to maintain constant fixed costs for a greater number of patients may be a valuable hedging strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the 30-day postoperative mortality and palliative care consultations in patients that underwent surgical procedures in the United States before and after Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (MACRA) implementation. DESIGN: Retrospective, Observational cohort study. SETTING: Secondary data were collected from the U.S. National Inpatient Sample, the largest hospital database in the country. The time span was from 2011 to 2019. PATIENTS: Adult patients that electively underwent 1 of 19 major procedures. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome was cumulative postoperative mortality in two study cohorts. The secondary outcome was palliative care use. We identified 4,900,451 patients and categorized them into two study cohorts: PreM: 2011-2014 (n = 2,103,836) and PostM: 2016-2019 (n = 2,796,615). Regression discontinuity estimates and multivariate analysis were used. Across all procedures, 149,372 patients (7.1%) and 156,610 patients (5%) died within 30 days of their index procedures in the PreM and PostM cohorts, respectively. There was no statistically significant increase in mortality rates around postoperative day (POD) 30 (POD 26-30 vs 31-35) for both cohorts. More patients had inpatient palliative consultations during POD 31-60 compared with POD 1-30 in PreM (8,533 of 2,081,207 patients [0.4%] vs 1,118 of 22,629 patients [4.9%]) and PostM (18,915 of 2,791,712 patients [0.7%] vs 417 of 4,903 patients [8.5%]). Patients were more likely to receive palliative care consultations during POD 31-60 compared with POD 1-30 in both the PreM (odds ratio [OR] 5.31; 95% CI, 2.22-8.68; p < 0.001) and the PostM (OR 7.84; 95% CI, 4.83-9.10; p < 0.001) cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: We did not observe an increase in postoperative mortality after POD 30 before or after MACRA implementation. However, palliative care use markedly increased after POD 30. These findings should be considered hypothesis-generating because of several confounders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The execution of building projects should be planned in a realistic time, at the assumed cost and quality, and take into account the risk of the contract parties. However, even the best-planned construction projects are exposed to the risk of delays. The article reviews causes of delays in the construction projects identified both in the world and in Poland. The consequences of delays, regardless of the responsible party, should be clearly spelled out in the contracts. Financial penalties for delays are commonly used in agreements for construction works, and their level, according to the presented analyses, is usually higher in the public than in the private sector. Attention has been also paid to the few models presented in the literature that make it possible to predict delays and prevent their effects. It seems that this is an interesting direction for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to present the model of proceedings in the case of a financial penalty being imposed for infringement of banking law in Poland and Germany and verify whether the parties' right to defence is ensured. The above issue is extremely topical, especially in light of the number and amount of financial penalties imposed by banking supervisory authorities. The article's thesis assumes that the legal regulations in force in Poland and Germany make the indicated guarantee a reality. The article highlights the role of financial market supervisory authorities, whose activities, including the imposition of financial penalties, translate into the safety of the banking sector. Detecting and then sanctioning banking law violations motivates financial market participants not to commit such violations. First, based on an analysis of judicial decisions and international law norms, the criteria that an exemplary model implementing the principle of the right to defence should meet were established. On the other hand, the following part of the article compares the legal framework in Poland and Germany and verifies whether the legal provisions provide the parties with the guarantees in question when imposing a financial penalty for violations of banking law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Financial penalties can vary over time in complex ways. • Behavioural reversals may arise when penalties 'switch off'. • Reductions in the strength of financial penalties further undermine effectiveness. • Penalties that can be weakened and 'switched off' may do more harm than good. Many financial incentives are time-varying due to the presence of time-limits, benefit ceilings and/or penalty thresholds. The potentially perverse effects of providing and then withdrawing financial incentives are now well-known. Whether or not these potentially perverse effects extend to other patterns of temporal variation remains unclear. The present study investigates the impact of temporal variation on the overall effectiveness of financial penalties for risky driving behaviours. Based on secondary analysis of data from a randomised field experiment, we find evidence for reductions in the target behaviour (relative to control) rather than habit persistence when penalties were temporarily 'switched-off'. These behavioural reversals during 'off' weeks in a (significant) minority of participants were large enough to completely offset the positive effects of financial penalties during 'on' weeks. Reductions in the strength of financial penalties further undermined their effectiveness; leaving affected participants (and society) worse off than if we had done nothing at all. For safe driving and perhaps also for other behaviours where intrinsic and extrinsic motivations come into conflict, efforts to limit the potential for 'switch off' and maintain the strength of financial penalties (for example, by using personalised and adaptive design) should yield improvements in their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite strong evidence confirming vaccination is safe and effective, some parents choose not to vaccinate their children. In 2016, the Australian Government introduced legislation strengthening links between vaccination compliance and some government payments. We interviewed thirty-one non-vaccinating parents about the impacts of this policy. Data analysis produced three key themes: 'questioning policy integrity', 'minimising impact' and 'holding my ground'. Affected parents offset reduced income by removing children from early childhood learning, reducing work commitments, moving residence to reduce living costs and accessing informal childcare arrangements. Parents reported a greater commitment to their decision not to vaccinate and an increased desire to maintain control over health choices for their children including an unprecedented willingness to become involved in protest action. Our study identifies why financial penalties have not been an effective policy measure for this sample of non-vaccinating parents, an understanding which may assist in the development of future legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a brief analysis of the place, role and purpose of monetary penalties and their theoretical underpinnings. Against this critique of financial penalties and the revenue ('the Benjamins')1 that flows from penalty infringement notices, the article examines the six-fold growth in penalty infringement notices2 issued to children and young people in NSW between 1998 and 2013. It outlines the disproportionate impact of monetary penalties on them and the increasing displacement of diversionary options, raising questions about the appropriateness of issuing infringement notices to children and young people. This article also addresses positive developments in relation to children and young people, including the introduction of Work and Development Orders (WDOs) in NSW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government legislation and public opinion are the main drivers behind the movement of manufacturing companies towards sustainable production. Fundamentally, companies want to avoid future financial penalties and the industry is therefore under pressure to adapt new techniques and practices in order to become environmentally friendly. The cost efficiency of metal cutting operations is highly dependent on accuracy, excellent surface finish and minimized tool wear and, to this end, has traditionally made abundant use of cutting fluid in machining operations. However, these cutting fluids have been a major contributor to environmental and health issues. In recent years, an enormous effort to eradicate these adverse effects has been made with one important focus being the implementation of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). In the present work, the authors have reviewed the current state of the art in MQL with a particular focus on drilling, turning, milling and grinding machining operations. Overall, it is concluded that MQL has huge potential as a substitute for conventional flood cooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Financial penalties in ancient China mainly took the forms of ransom and fines. Most previous studies of ancient China’s financial penalties proceeded under the viewpoint of legal or political history based on dynastic chronology. However, some important assertions made in these studies have already been refuted by recently excavated materials. Adding to this, the period from pre-Qin time to early Han, during which the forms of financial penalty changed frequently, has not been understood as a whole. This article tries to approach the same topic through economic history, to reveal the stated intention behind the transitions of the forms of financial penalty against the background of metal coins' issuance. The author's conclusion is: since financial penalties were connected to the state’s finance for the first time in the Eastern Zhou, their value had been from the first a military one; meanwhile with the prevalence of coinage, the payments came to be made with copper coins. Observing the Qin's financial penalties through the example of fines (zi) shows that they had mainly been applied to people with official duties; then the object was later extended to common people. As, since the time of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, the government put more value on labour provided by prisoners, the form of payment of financial penalty transited rapidly into corvee labour. In the beginning of the Han, taking the fall of the Qin as a lesson, there was no example of demanding labour for a crime, although the law had such a clause: which is to say that financial penalties began to return to the form of monetary payment. The development of type-A ransom was in line with such a return. Generally speaking, the above-mentioned transition was driven by the state’s financial demands, while influenced appreciably by the development of a monetary economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to look at the inner workings of the punitive system in ancient Athens. After a brief survey of the range of penalties available in Classical Athens (capital punishment, exile and outlawry, disenfranchisement, financial penalties, imprisonment, corporal penalties), it proceeds first to examine their nature (as they frequently fail to meet our criteria of punishment), and then to map them on the substance vs. procedure controversy regarding the Athenian legal system. The last two sections of the paper are devoted to the manner in which penalties were imposed (summary punishment, punishment by sentence, "automatic" punishment) and executed (private vs. public execution of court verdicts; coercive measures etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial sanctions are considered a cost-beneficial alternative to incarceration for lesser offences, but their use has limitations. This study investigates the debt burdens of a group of offenders incarcerated in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and assesses associations with health and social functioning. Between October 2008 and June 2009, 156 participants of a reintegration programme operating in NSW prisons (the Justice Health Connections Project) completed face-to-face structured interviews concerning the nature, amount and impact of their debts. Copies of participants' NSW State Debt Recovery Office (SRDO) records were also obtained. Ninety-five per cent of participants reported debt to the SDRO. Participants who provided an estimate of their debt reported an average of $12,161 owed to the SDRO, compared to their verifiable average of $8,854. Eighteen per cent of participants with SDRO debt had incurred their earliest outstanding fine when they were younger than 18 years old. Sixty-four per cent perceived their SDRO debt as stressful; and 94 per cent reported that their debt was made worse by drugs (92%) and/or fine enforcement actions (50%). Based on the average Australian pension income and repayments of $15 per week, the average SDRO debt would take an ex-inmate 11 years to repay. Given the many challenges faced by these individuals upon re-entry to the community the additional strain imposed by unmanageable financial penalties should not be ignored. Steps are required to ensure that the criminal justice need for retribution is balanced against the benefit of having ex-prisoners re/join and contribute to a safe and law-abiding society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial penalties are the most widely used sentence in England and Wales, but present difficulties for enforcement. This article examines the enforcement of confiscation orders – a relatively poorly understood financial penalty. Drawing on interviews with actors in the confiscation order process this article examines the processes through which confiscation orders are enforced. It is argued that enforcement is the result of an interaction of factors which include the initial decision making of police officers, financial investigators and prosecutors; the accuracy of information about offenders' financial affairs; enforcement powers, intelligence and operational support; and, the behaviour and attitudes of the offender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: In this article, we present findings from an experimental study of an innovative program in fine enforcement developed by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) of New Jersey, termed Project MUSTER (MUST Earn Restitution). The project was initiated by the New Jersey AOC as a response to concerns among probation personnel that probationers sentenced to monetary penalties often failed to meet their financial obligations. The program sought to increase payment of court-ordered financial obligations among probationers who are seriously delinquent in paying fines, penalties, and restitution, and was designed to “strengthen the effectiveness of restitution and fine sanctions by forcing those offenders who have the ability to make regular payments to do so.” Project MUSTER relied on a combination of intensive probation, threats of violation to court and incarceration, and community service. We find that probationers sentenced to Project MUSTER were significantly more likely to pay court-ordered financial obligations than were those who experienced regular probation supervision. However, probationers sentenced to a second treatment group, in which the only intervention was violation of probation (one part of the MUSTER program), had similar outcomes to the MUSTER condition. These findings suggest that the main cause of fine payment was a deterrent threat of possible incarceration, which is often termed the “miracle of the cells.” Policy Implications: Our study shows that it is possible to gain greater compliance with court-ordered financial obligations and that such compliance may be gained with a relatively simple and straightforward criminal justice intervention. Threats of violation of probation are an effective tool for gaining compliance with financial obligations. Given the growing interest in monetary penalties as an alternative to incarceration, these findings have particular policy importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]