Preferred provider organization
A preferred provider organization is a subscription-based medical care arrangement. A membership allows a substantial discount below the regularly charged rates of the designated professionals partnered with the organization. Preferred provider organizations themselves earn money by charging an access fee to the insurance company for the use of their network (unlike the usual insurance with premiums and corresponding payments paid either in full or partially by the insurance provider to the medical doctor). They negotiate with providers to set fee schedules, and handle disputes between insurers and providers. PPOs can also contract with one another to strengthen their position in certain geographic areas without forming new relationships directly with providers. This will be mutually beneficial in theory, as be billed at a reduced rate when its insureds utilize the services of the "preferred" provider and the provider will see an increase in its business as almost all insureds in the organization will use only providers who are members. PPOs have gained popularity because, although they tend to have slightly higher premiums than HMOs and other more restrictive plans, they offer patients more flexibility overall.
Police training officer
The PTO Program was created by a team of police experts from the United States and Canada. The team was led by Reno Police Chief Jerry Hoover and included Deputy Chief Ron Glensor, Commander Steve Pitts, Officer Dave Ponte (Reno P.D.), police educator Gerry Cleveland and researcher Gregory Saville, former Canadian police officers. Cleveland and Saville designed and wrote the program with input from the team. The program was field tested for the first time in 2000 in the Reno Police Department, Reno, Nevada. It was later expanded into five other pilot police academies, through assistance of the Police Executive Research Forum and the COPS Office. Those agencies include Charlotte-Mecklenberg (North Carolina), Colorado Springs (Colorado), Richmond (California), Lowell (Massachusetts), and Savannah (Georgia). Through the Police Society for Problem Based Learning (www.pspbl.org) the model has been developed and employed in hundreds of departments in the U.S. and Canada.