Environmental, health and safety cost benefit analysis in the United States chemical industry

The purpose of this research project is to determine whether there is a cost/benefit to allocating financial and other company-related resources to improve environmental, health and safety performance beyond that which is required by law. The issue of whether a company benefits from spending dollars to achieve environmental, health and safety performance beyond legal compliance is an important issue to the chemical manufacturing industry in the United States because of the voluminous and complex legal requirements impacting environmental, health and safety expenditures. The cost/benefit issue has practical significance because many U.S. chemical manufacturing companies base their environmental, health and safety management strategies on just achieving and maintaining compliance with legal requirements when in reality this strategy may actually be a higher cost way of managing environmental, health and safety practices. This difference in environmental, health and safety management strategy is being investigated to determine if managing environmental, health and safety to achieve performance beyond that which is required by law results in a greater benefit to companies in the U.S. chemical manufacturing sector.

Hospital and environmental variation in Texas nonprofit hospital organizational policies regarding charity care

The 2005 Annual Statement of Community Benefits Standard (ASCBS) and the annual report of the Community Benefits Plan, Summary of Current Hospital Charity Care Policy and Community Benefits, were used to identify various environmental and policy relationships with regard to eligibility for charity care requirements, a component for meeting the nonprofit requirements established by the Texas Legislature for nonprofit tax exemption (Texas Health and Safety Code, §311.04610). ^ Charity care policies are established by the individual hospital (or systems) and are generally defined as rules concerning care provided by the institution without the expectation of payment. This study has been undertaken to provide specific information about the charity care eligibility requirement policies of nonprofit hospitals. These hospitals are the part of the safety net for those persons who are indigent, low-income and uninsured. This study examines nonprofit hospitals by physical location, bed size, religious affiliation, trauma level, disproportionate share, and teaching designations. County information includes population, percentage of residents eligible for Medicaid benefits, ethnic makeup of county residents, poverty level, designation of a hospital district or operators of a public hospital, and the number of nonprofit and for-profit hospitals located in the county. Although this information has been collected by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), no other analysis has been conducted. ^