A gateway conspiracy? Belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories prospectively predicts greater conspiracist ideation.

A primary focus of research on conspiracy theories has been understanding the psychological characteristics that predict people's level of conspiracist ideation. However, the dynamics of conspiracist ideation-i.e.

Contracting COVID-19: a longitudinal investigation of the impact of beliefs and knowledge.

Recent work has found that an individual's beliefs and personal characteristics can impact perceptions of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain individuals-such as those who are politically conservative or who endorse conspiracy theories-are less likely to engage in preventative behaviors like social distancing. The current research aims to address whether these individual differences not only affect people's reactions to the pandemic, but also their actual likelihood of contracting COVID-19.

Examining the Left-Right Divide Through the Lens of a Global Crisis: Ideological Differences and Their Implications for Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 disease pandemic is one of the most pressing global health issues of our time. Nevertheless, responses to the pandemic exhibit a stark ideological divide, with political conservatives (versus liberals/progressives) expressing less concern about the virus and less behavioral compliance with efforts to combat it. Drawing from decades of research on the psychological underpinnings of ideology, in four studies (total  = 4441) we examine the factors that contribute to the ideological gap in pandemic response-across domains including personality (e.

Who is (not) complying with the U. S. social distancing directive and why? Testing a general framework of compliance with virtual measures of social distancing.

A study involving over 2000 online participants (US residents) tested a general framework regarding compliance with a directive in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study featured not only a self-report measure of social distancing but also virtual behavior measures-simulations that presented participants with graphical depictions mirroring multiple real-world scenarios and asked them to position themselves in relation to others in the scene. The conceptual framework highlights three essential components of a directive: (1) the source, some entity is advocating for a behavioral change; (2) the surrounding context, the directive is in response to some challenge; and (3) the target, the persons to whom the directive is addressed.

Social distancing decreases an individual's likelihood of contracting COVID-19.

Past research has established the value of social distancing as a means of deterring the spread of COVID-19 largely by examining aggregate level data. Locales in which efforts were undertaken to encourage distancing experienced reductions in their rate of transmission. However, these aggregate results tell us little about the effectiveness of social distancing at the level of the individual, which is the question addressed by the current research.

Sexism, racism, and nationalism: Factors associated with the 2016 U.S. presidential election results?

After the generally unexpected outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, many explanations were proposed to account for the results.

Identifying revenue cycle management opportunities.

With practice bottom lines rapidly eroding, repeated threats of Medicare cuts, and the need to purchase expensive technology to meet the requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, today's practicing physicians have no choice but to aggressively manage their revenue cycles. Physicians need to be paid in a timely fashion for each service they provide, and they need to be sure the payments they receive are correct.

Physician practice and hospital revenue cycle drivers: what's the difference?

There are two key differences between hospitals and physician practices in revenue cycle management: unit of work and its value, and per unit cost to collect. Reducing a physician practice's cost to collect requires, first and foremost, the right technology and functionality and the right staff. Three advanced collections techniques-denials management, contract compliance, and fee schedule management and maintenance-should be examined for their potential value in ensuring that an owned practice is paid correctly for every service.

Using denial management techniques to maximize practice reimbursements.

In today's world of continually decreasing reimbursements and widely anticipated technology expenses, it is imperative that practices maximize their existing reimbursement rates. This article explains the basic concepts of denial management and offers suggestions to ensure that denial management practices are successfully implemented in the practice setting using either an internal or external billing model.