Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Research Paper:
Healthcare Services and
The Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Table of Contents:
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………...3
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….3
Background of the Affordable Care Act …………………………………………………4
The Affordable Care Act………………………………………………………………….. 5
Methodology………………………………………………………………………………...8
Collection of Data…………………………………………………………………………..9

Primary………………………………………………………………………………10 Secondary…………………………………………………………………………..11

The Environmental Working Group………………………………………………………12

Primary Survey…………………………………………………………………….13

Questions and Answers…………………………………………………………...14

Findings from the collection of information and data…………………………………..15

Conclusion and recommendations……………………………………………………….17

Appendix A: SWOT
Analysis……………………………………………………………..19

Appendix B: EWG’s Business Strategy …………………………………………………26

Appendix C: EWG’s Business Analyses………………………………………………...32

Appendix D: References…………………………………………………………………..37

Abstract
Healthcare has been a topic of debate since a long period of time. The recent changes in the government legislation have specified some employer-based requirements for the healthcare provision to employees. Many organizations have also been impacted by the legislative amendments. The following section will cover the introductory knowledge of the Affordable Care Act along with its objectives. Furthermore, we will discuss the impact of this act has on the American society as a whole.
The current paper is based on the research and analysis of the effects of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on a healthcare organization. It is the most comprehensive reform of the U.S. medical system in at least 45 years as its supports view it. It has a lot of impact on several demographic sections of the society. Apart from other legislations, the act has the ruling to extend the reach of the current health care insurance policy beneficiaries including bringing down the age limit. Such legislation can have different effects on both employers and the employees. The paper tries to look into the matter from both secondary and primary research in an organization to find out how an organization is affected by the act and up to what extent.
Introduction
The Affordable Care Act is implemented with an objective of increasing the rate of health insurance coverage and the affordability of insurance by the residents of America. This had led to reduce the costs of health care for individuals, as well as, the government. The Act offers many mechanisms, like mandates, subsidies and tax credits to both employers and individuals in order to increase the rate of insurance coverage and affordability. Under this Act, insurance companies are liable to cover all applicants within new minimum standards, and offer the same rates irrespective of any pre-existing conditions or gender. The recent legislative changes aim to provide an improved healthcare to the society. The act will certainly have some consequences to the healthcare services providing organizations in the industry. Therefore, the further sections of the paper will try to find out and analyze the effects of the act on the health care organizations (U.S. Department of Health & Human Sciences, 2013).
Background of the Affordable Care Act
The current paper belongs to the healthcare cost containment as it is seen in EWG. The latest phase of reforms was brought by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Health Care Cost Containment Initiative, which was led by former Senate Majority Leaders, Tom Daschle and Bill First. The report addressed a number of health care related issues through its health system reforms. The report talks about some new initiatives and reforms including a federal reinsurance mechanism. It brings into highlight the core issues and proposes certain recommendations based upon four key points. These are: structural Medicare reform, tax and regulatory reform, prioritizing quality, prevention, and wellness and perusing delivery from the states’ end (Salam, 2013).
On the basis of this report, the government can plan to bring certain policy initiatives and certain legislative moves to implement the planned reforms in the health care sector. The primary view is to make the health care sector more accountable and to curb the inflation in the sector. There have been certain legislative moves, such as Affordable Care Act and others that are in place to govern the health care practices. These require employers in the sector to comply with certain standards and requirements. This will certainly have an impact over the manner in which health care operations take place (Patrick, 2013). With this view, the current research paper tries to find out the impact which the legislation will have on organizations. To look at how an individual organization will be affected from the legislation, the research study is conducted in a selected organization.
Above we have talked about the Affordable Care Act, and its objectives and the effects of the Affordable Care Act on various departments of the country. A larger part of the country will fall under insurance coverage as a result of the recent legislative changes related to health. On this basis, now discussion on the health benefits that Americans will get with the implementation of this Act will be discussed under this section.
The Affordable Care Act
Under the regulations of the act, the scholarships and loan repayment programs are funded by the Act with an objective of increasing the number of primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, mental health providers, and dentists in those areas of the country that require them the most. The Act aims to fight the shortage of nursing by using a comprehensive approach that focuses on the retention and enhanced educational opportunities. The Act, through new incentives and recruitment, would lead to an increased supply of public health professionals to prepare the United States for health emergencies. The Act also offers flexibility to state and local government to come up with health workforce recruitment strategies. This has helped in expanding crucial and timely access to care by funding the expansion, construction, and operation of community health centers all across the nation (U.S. Department of Health & Human Sciences, 2013).
The Act will help to encourage wellness and public health at large by providing an exceptional funding commitment to the required areas. There will be a creation of national prevention and health promotion strategies that will incorporate the most effective and achievable methods. The families will be empowered by providing them the tools to look for the best science-based nutrition information. This would make prevention and screenings a priority by waiving co-payments for American seniors on Medicare. Thus, the American health status will improve by reducing the occurrence of avertable illness and disability in the US (Medicaid, 2013).
The citizens of the country with no insurance coverage will have the choice to select insurance coverage that works best for them in the fresh and competitive market. The insurance exchange will empower Americans and offer them new affordable choices of private insurance plans that have to fight for their business based on the cost and quality. Though the choice of insurance coverage through this exchange will not be available to the small business owners, they will receive a new tax credit to help making up for the cost incurred by covering employees (Medicaid, 2013).
The Act would also ensure that there are no insurance industry abuses by ascertaining honest functioning of insurance companies. The Act outlaws insurance company by refusing insurance coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions of people. This gives consumers more power to appeal insurance companies’ decisions.
We have discussed so far the positive aspects of the Act that will be favorable to American society. However, there is also a negative side of this Act that is being talked about. Critics have commented that the Act may lead to business uncertainty in the nation. Now, we will discuss the extent to which this Act impacts small and large businesses and employers of the country.
The act will bring a larger population under the coverage of health care policies. On the other hand, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been characterized as a threat to the American business and to the survival of employer-based health insurance. It is criticized that the recent law requirements lead to the business uncertainty and delayed economic recovery. On the other hand, the objective analysis of the impact of the Act on coverage and costs show the opposite. It reveals that the Act’s requirements have an insignificant impact on the total employer-sponsored coverage and its costs (Blumberg, Buettgens, Feder & Holahan, 2012). The law may somehow prove to be a burden for small businesses.
According to this Act, employers with less than fifty workers are exempted from all kinds of penalties associated with offering the insurance coverage. In contrast to this, with effect from 2014, employers with 25 or lesser employees and average pay of $50,000 or less are eligible for two years, for tax credits toward premiums for coverage if they desire. The employers with less than ten employees and an average wage of $25,000 or less are eligible for the full credit (Blumberg, Buettgens, Feder & Holahan, 2012). It has been criticized that the credit may not be favorable for many small employers. However, the credit is aimed at those employers, who have been unlikely to offer coverage and whose coverage offerings have excluded the most in the recent past.
In order to conduct any research, it is important that the correct methods are selected for fulfilling the objectives of the topic under study. The following section will describe various methods, tools, approaches, etc. that have been used in this research paper. Also, the importance and reasons for the chosen methods will be justified.

Research Methodology
The section of methodology is a blueprint of all the research methods and tools that have been used for the investigation and inquiry of the topic under study. It is important to select appropriate research methods for any topic to make it reliable and valid (Goddard & Melville 2004). The effect of the recent governmental legislation, its impact, and the resultant employees’ benefits has been analyzed using an appropriate methodology. There are two chief kinds of research approaches: deductive and inductive. The inductive approach is based on a specific idea for the generalization of the situation according to the research topic while on the other hand; deductive research is based on the general idea to reach a specific conclusion. Thus, the above recent changes in the governmental legislation and their effects on the organization’s strategy have been investigated using the inductive approach. Moreover, inductive approach is flexible in nature and requires no pre-determined theory to collect data and information. Also, the approach favors higher accuracy, reliability and validity of the research (Gill and Phil 2010). With the help of this approach, the effects of legislative changes on health environment have been evaluated.
The research designs are broadly divided into three categories: exploratory, descriptive and diagnostic research design. The exploratory research design is chosen over descriptive research when the problem is less structured. Exploratory research offers a better understanding of the situation. With the help of the exploratory research, hypotheses are produced about the given situation. The most popular methods of research are: in-depth interviews, questionnaires, observations, documentation reviews, business analyses, and data collection. Thus, exploratory research has been used for the current paper as it is more flexible in nature and includes qualitative research techniques (Zikmund and Babin 2007). The main focus of the paper is to investigate various changes in the recent governmental legislation and its consequential effects on the organization and employees. This paper has been thoroughly examined using the exploratory research.
Collection of Data
Collection of data plays a significant role in any study or research as it decides the accuracy and validity of the study. The following discussion will be about the methods of the data collection used in the project of Healthcare Cost Containment in context of Environmental Working Group. It will also give the justification for the selected data collection method to enhance your knowledge.
There are two methods for collecting a wide range of data: primary and secondary data collection. In order to collect the required information, both secondary, as well as, primary data collection have been done. A larger portion of this research has been formed by using secondary data. Though the secondary data has a lesser validity, it still has a great importance. In situations, when obtaining primary data is difficult, the research topic makes the use of the secondary data. Sometimes, the topic is confined to the secondary data only when the primary data does not exist. The topic has been researched and investigated by making use of the available information about EWG in various journals, its own website, other online websites, etc. EWG’s different functions, key roles and objectives, main issues, future proposals and the past trend of working have been thoroughly investigated to prepare the research paper.
Primary
There is also a primary collection of data for qualitative analysis of the situation. Primary data is considered to be more reliable, authentic and objective as it has not been published yet. It also has a greater validity because primary data is unaltered and unchanged by human beings. Primary data makes the research more trustworthy and scientific as it adds to the validity of the study. For the purpose of collection the primary information, the Environment Working Group (EWG) has been selected to conduct the study. The Environmental Working Group has its presence in a wide array of products and services of consumer usage. It serves its customers in consumer durables, energy, farming, water, food and toxics. With all these, it tries to address the key environmental health issues of the country.
All the people in the health care organization, whether from the top management or the nursing staff, play vital roles in the growth of the organization. Similarly, the individuals and organizational practices are also affected from the new legislation or a change in the existing legislation. To learn about the possible manner in which the new legislation can affect the medical practices in a service organization working in the healthcare industry, two administrative officers from EWG were interviewed. They were asked about their opinions regarding the changes in the healthcare legislation. A list of questions was prepared beforehand and therefore, it was a structured interview method. Administrative staff has been primarily chosen for the study because they are responsible for the whole administrative work and they understand the impact of legislation on their organizational strategies (Goddard & Melville, 2004). Additionally, they possess a good amount of knowledge about the demographic changes in the workforce of their organization. So, they can better explain the consequences of the proposal of providing continued healthcare benefits to employees of the organization. Thus, the use of both primary, as well as, secondary data has helped in better authenticity of the data obtained for the desired purpose.
While conducting the research, ethical issues are considered. The information used from secondary sources has not been copied directly to avoid plagiarism in any form, though there is an accurate credit given to the related sources. The selection of the sample of two administrative officers has been done without any personal biasness. Also, the personal information of employees is kept anonymous while analyzing the data (Miller, Birch, Mauthner and Jessop 2012). There has been no use of force to get responses from the administrative staff.
Moving towards, this section will emphasis on the Environmental Working Group, the mission of the organization and its key objectives. This is because health has been one of the most important concerns in the contemporary world.
Secondary
The federal government of the United States spends the biggest share of its GDP on health care as compared to many other developed countries. Still, there are millions of Americans, who face uncoordinated and costly medical care. Given the downturn in the economy and other developments in the industry, the health care spending is expected to continue in the near future. This is to cover up the fiscal deficit of the government. These recent developments have raised the health care cost inflation.
The health care cost containment and medical innovation have been the needs that have been long overdue in the country. The federal government has taken several factors into consideration that include both the demand factors and the supply factors. Since the last two decades, the government has initiated several reforms in the healthcare sector and the latest phase of reforms was launched in August, 2012.
The Environmental Working Group
The Environmental Working Group is one of the fastest ruling environmental health research and advocacy organizations. The organization aims to act as a supervisor to ensure that Americans benefit from the healthier environment by providing them with the correct facts and information regarding the health issues. Thus, EWG focuses on creating a forward-looking research and advocacy that transform governmental policies and the market. This helps in the conversation of land and water, production and use of energy in a responsible manner, and ensuring that food and consumer products do not contain any unsafe chemicals. The organization inspects the government subsidies that promote inefficient practices, and supports policies that encourage the management of the land and natural resources (Environmental Working Group, 2013). The objective of the organization is to create a healthier and cleaner environment for the next generation and beyond with the help of people at large and with the help of the partnered organizations.
Once a year, EWG publishes its “Dirty Dozen” wherein there is a list of foods given that have the highest pesticide residue. The EWG also publishes the “Clean 15” that lists the foods with minimum pesticide residue. It is recommended by the EWG that consumers search for organically produced varieties of the products.
The three main policy or issue areas on which EWG works are: toxic chemicals and human health; farming and agricultural subsidies; and public lands and natural resources. The largest focus of EWG is the reform of Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). There were around 62,000 chemicals that were declared safe when the Act was passed. However, there was little data to support this policy. Since then, though there is no data to ensure the safety, many chemicals have been used into commercial circulation in the US. In order to assure that infants, kids, and other vulnerable groups are safe, EWG has been endeavoring to pass the Kid-Safe Chemical Act (Environmental Working Group, 2013). This would make it necessary for industrial chemicals to be safe for the afore-mentioned groups.
A majority of funding to the organization is contributed by foundations and the remaining comes from individuals, small sales, consulting for other organizations, etc.
The next section brings out the information gathered from the primary study. It is significant as the primary sources are believed to be more reliable. For primary study, the officials from EWG were interviewed and they shared their experiences and viewpoints on how the ACA will be going to affect them.
Primary Survey
For primary survey, two of the officials were interviewed regarding the viewpoint of their organization on the proposed legislation i.e. the Affordable Care Act. They shared their experiences regarding their association with the organization, the functioning of daily operations in the organization and how to cope up with the requirements of the Act. As the Act requires certain standards and procedures to be followed by the employers, the officials discussed their work under the new norms. Below are the details of questions asked and their responses from the associated official of EWG.

Questions and Answers
Q 1. How do you think the new Act will be going to affect the access to the health
care?
Ans. The primary objective of our organization i.e. EWG is to provide the patients with an increased access to healthcare, which is affordable and of enhanced quality relating to the objective of the healthcare reform. As the federal administration suggests, the new Act will ensure an increased access of healthcare to a larger population than earlier. However, it has certain mandatory requirements for employers like us and therefore, it will put additional burden on them.
Q 2. Does the new affordable Act under the healthcare reform include provisions for education or medical training?
Ans. The health care reform bill targets the education, especially the nursing education heavily. It also includes various grants given by the federal government that are targeted at associate, baccalaureate and advanced education in healthcare.
Q 3. What are your issues regarding the Act brought by the government?
Ans. As it is known to all, the Affordable Care Act governs the coverage of healthcare policies by various employers. It expands the reach of coverage to those not having any easy access to them. While the move is forward looking from the government’s point of view, it seems that it is in a hurry to bring it in place. This will affect the employers as they will not have enough time to update their health care coverage systems. Any technical complexity may result in non-compliance with the requirements and the employer may face arbitrary punishment.
Q 4. Are you satisfied with the delay declared by the government to imply the Act?
Ans. Yes, the administration has taken a positive step in shifting away the date from where the provisions mentioned in the Act will come into existence. As the date is shifted to somewhere in 2014, this will help employers to make the necessary updates and other arrangements to function according to the provisions of the Act.
Q 5. What according to you are the causes of concern in the Act?
Ans. The government has widened the area covered by the health care insurance and in several plans; it has included the relatives of the targeted insured person. The Act also includes children and youth under 26 to be a part of the coverage policy. However, it does not explain much on what should be the mechanism for employers covering their employees or customers to save losses.
The next section is about finding and analysis. Each set of data or information gathered from various sources whether primary or secondary brings out certain findings. This will help in completing the relevance of the research and assist the researcher in making any recommendations or other decisions.
Findings from the collection of information and data
The Affordable Care Act has been brought primarily to uplift the status of coverage of the healthcare insurance policies for the section, which finds it hard to access them. It requires employers to comply with certain legislative demands. As it was already assumed, the Act has faced more criticism than complements because of being harsh on employers. There are both supporters and opponents of the Act. The supporters applauded the Act and the administration for the mandate to provide coverage to the actual needy people, who need access to the quality health care. They say that the Act has the requirement for certain businesses to provide healthcare coverage to the full time employees.
However, there are opponents of the Act, who view it as much of a regressive Act rather than a reformist. Their arguments are regarding the interests of employers, who find the Act as a barrier for both existing and new entries in the industry. Many employers may plan to shut down and leave the industry. A larger section among those opposing the Act includes the health insurance or other employers in the related industry. Their view is that the government wants to put additional burden on them as they have to bear costs of including more people in their health policies.
Everyone accepts the fact that there is a critical need in the country to bring the real healthcare reforms. The reforms should be as such to improve access to affordable health care services and health insurance to those, who have not utilized it so far comfortably. The real reform should protect individuals and families from the risk of catastrophic health care expenses. But the problem occurs when there is conflict of interests, where the community of health care businesses feels that the government’s move to initiate such Act as ACA is only one sided. All those from business class feel that this will put extra load on them and they will have to fight a lot to strive in the market.
On the other hand, there are those who criticize the policy for not being in favor of the real reforms. As Paul Howard (2011) has highlighted, the job of the reformist policies by the government is to bring down the unsustainable rate of health care cost, providing health care opportunities to all and creating better incentives for those providing the healthcare services. According to Paul, the incidences, such as job lock can be reduced by creating truly portable individual health insurance policies. It can also encourage entrepreneurship and allow employees to change jobs without the fear of the loss of valuable health insurance (Howard, 2011).
The employers can also be helpful in shifting scarce capital to other resources or business operations that are critical through slowing down the rate of the insurance premium growth. These operations include job creation or compensation for employees. Until there is a significant health care reform, rising employer health insurance premiums will hit the business capital and profits hard and bring down the take home salary of employees.
There are others, like Gruber (2011), who feel in the same manner. According to them, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act do not provide the complete solution to the country’s current health care situation. This is so as the Act nearly doubles down on certain key aspects of the healthcare industry and the economy. It adds pressures and problems that serve as added economic challenges (Gruber, 2011).
The section of conclusion and recommendation sums up the paper with some ideas shared by the researcher. The last section here sums up the overall discussion in the paper based on the ACA and provides few suggestions as to how the government should move forward with the Act.
Conclusion and recommendations
The ACA is a transformative piece of legislation, which is viewed by the government as a forward looking initiative. Although, the government is eager to fully implement in order to reshape the US health care industry in the coming decades, there are doubts of a large section, which this Act should address. To imply such an Act, there are a lot of ideas coming from different sections of the society that can be fruitful if the government wishes to listen to them. These include reducing the consumer demand for healthcare services, reducing payments to health care providers, organizing the payment for and delivery of care and promoting cost effective standards in care delivery. The approaches by the government so far do not seem to align with these recommendations. Looking at such uncertainty, the ACA needs to pursue at start the different paths of controlling costs. These can range from controlling the healthcare costs to the leverage those working on both the demand side and the supply side. The government can provide the first step towards controlling the costs and understanding and segregating things based on their usefulness.

Appendix A: S.W.O.T Analysis Core problems and issues
Environmental Working Group is the first of environmental protective organizations founded in the United States that publishes and educates the nation about the hazards of using and consuming everyday popular products such as medicine, skin care and food. Many environmental organisations that exist today in our country and beyond are mostly focused on protection of the wildlife and natural resources. The EWG was the pioneer of the industry to first introduce the printed booklets, specialised web sites and constant updates to their database. However being a non-profit organisation the Environmental Working Group has struggled to obtain necessary funding through foundations donation, government program 's and private investments. The group created EWG Action Fund to fund group 's advocacy for polices that protect the nation against toxic substances and pollution caused by using heavy pesticides.
The group has experienced major trust issues as many companies’ representatives went against group 's statements regarding the safety issues as being not scientifically proven. The EWG 's cosmetic database raised many questions and concerns as of being not enough trust worthy to the regular citizens that can only rely on such data based on non-laboratory tested results.
The luck of trust made it very difficult for the group to support its claims. Furthermore, many manufacturing companies requested scientific proof of toxicity of their products and reissued safety records and laboratory findings. Strength:
Major advantages of the Environmental Working Group would be its pioneering way of informing the nation about potentially dangerous substances. We may call it innovation in the world of environmental protection organisations. The creation of major database that contain thousands of products and being regularly updated with product reformulations as well as newly released products to the market. The group has been successful in publishing special brochures called "dirty dozen" and "clean 15", those have been release by emails and regular post as well as distributed around the major supermarkets and speciality stores in many states.
The Environmental Working Group has become a “brand" among many other similar organisations. Over the years of operation the group has gained people 's attention around the world, with famous food and cosmetics database being updated with world known brands. During the last 20 years the group has become nation 's leader in the environmental protection oversight. Recently the EWG have established their own special award for excellence in Non-profit Technology and Digital Mobilization. The EWG group had been a part of the major advocacy on farming bill, healthier and safer water, quality nutrition for low-income families and many more over the past 19 years. Never before we have seen the environmental organisation going further to the White House to support bans and bills that would ensure the nations safety and well-being. The group has a major success with Safe Chemical Act which been approved by the Senate based on the group 's ground-breaking study of 2008. The issue of the first interactive safety system that rates thousands of household products based on its safety ratings had set the EWG apart from other environmental protective organisations and brought the use of technology methods further within the industry. Weaknesses:
Major issue that EWG would have to solve is the trust among regular consumers, national study organisations, medical societies and manufacturing companies that use these issues to their advantage. Luck of trust brings uncertainty and possibly loss of some sources of funding, which can be crucial for a non-profit organisation.
EWG 's safety guides and why it matters? Most people use cosmetics and other personal care items without a second thought, believing that the government oversees their safety. Not so. No health studies or pre-market testing are required for these products. However, nation 's frequent exposures to cosmetics and personal care products raise questions about the potential health risks from the myriad of not assessed ingredients in them. These ingredients migrate into the bodies of nearly every person on earth.
The Limits - what are they? EWG 's Skin Deep product ratings are based on the known hazards associated with ingredients listed on labels. These ratings represent EWG’s best effort to present solid information on cosmetic safety. But the answers are not as clear as we would like. Due to the weakness of the FDA’s cosmetics rules, many products with “green” ratings contain ingredients that have not been tested. These products appear to be free of ingredients that we know or suspect to present health hazards. But absence of evidence is not proof of safety. There may be chemical hazards that scientists have yet to identify. In cases where data are lacking, a “limited data” or “no data” rating is shown alongside the green hazard score.
EWG’s ratings are subject to revision based on new evidence in the scientific literature or new determinations by government bodies regarding the safety of chemicals used in these products. EWG’s ratings are based on data suggesting that certain ingredients are hazardous.
But we add a significant caveat: in most cases it is impossible to predict whether a particular product poses a health hazard. Actual health risks, if any, will vary based on how much exposure each person has to a toxic ingredient, as well as that person’s age, health status, genes and other factors. For practical purposes, EWG’s ratings represent the best available information on the safety of personal care product ingredients. As science advances, Skin Deep will embrace new insights into the safety of chemicals in personal care products.
EWG’s ratings are subject to revision based on new evidence in the scientific literature or new determinations by government bodies regarding the safety of chemicals used in these products. Opportunities:
The popularity of a healthy lifestyle and the use of green labelled products have been on the rise in the past 10years not only in the U.S. but all around the world. The more people know about the risks and safety standards the more information regarding recent findings and new safety bill proposals will be required. This makes environmental advocates such as EWG necessary to exist and operate. Major opportunities will come from widening the current product database, creation of the new ways of informing people about new findings beyond the states border, including making regular changes according to different governments’ regulations. Using modern technologies for collecting and researching data. Reaching different social groups will ensure the spread of the information and continuing research.
Increasing presence at less populated local markets promoting healthier lifestyle along with educational resources about toxicity in everyday life will increase the need for more government involvement and thus additional funding.
Providing similar guides for healthier shopping in different languages could also potentially increase group 's presence not only among many different cultures immigrant communities in the U.S. but also overseas. Supporting and advocating for environmental bill passage will increase government involvement and provide more support for the group. Threats:
The Environmental Working Group has several threats. The first is that there is a lack of credibility in its findings and statements. Its latest findings and research is mostly based on the assessment of the ingredient or a substance but not its exact amount and content in a particular product. New safety regulations make companies that manufacture everyday use products to reformulate their ingredients to an acceptable safety level. Ever changing technologies are making more difficult to state a problem without considering an investment into own laboratory premises to conduct full study of the finished product being under question of safety of use.
Recent researches by a respected scientist have shaken the information provided by the group regarding the safety and nutritious differences between conventionally and organically grown fruits and vegetables. In those studies there were no significant differences found for nutritional value between those two groups. This information of course will not cause an immediate loss of interest to the published information such as "shopper 's guide" but could potentially harm the trust level within less educated and lower income communities as well as those with limited language skills.
One of the greatest threats to EWG comes from GMO and its labelling. The group has focused its research on the harmful effects of such foods without labelling for which major parts of the funding were spent; now the situation is changing for the better. The presence of GMO in foods can cause a severe threat to human beings. GMO can contract cancer, severe food allergy reactions, and even death. GMO foods have the potential of breeding new animal and plant diseases and birth defects. GMO food severely affects the environment. It also have the potential of making seed varieties extinct. Still these findings are not concluding and require years of evidence. Currently, GMO labelling is required in EU countries, but still in process in the United States. New labelling requirement that may be in effect soon will require manufacturers to label appropriately products containing GMO or other chemically altered ingredients. This could potentially affect the need for EWG 's published shoppers guide and other resources therefore threatening current financial means of the group along with salaried employees.
As a result of the above SWOT analysis the following can be concluded: Recommended:
Greater involvement with major environmental government organisations, such as EPA.
Invest in own laboratory facilities with quality staff and scientific approach. Increase of published materials with scientifically proven results that could be a part of a new bill proposal based on those findings.
Regaining trust. Involve with consumers, organise special events on a local level. Promote healthy lifestyle among young groups of citizens.
Educate. Create and open workshops at a national level, attract volunteers to participate in the functioning of those events.
Fuller cooperation with government funds agencies, to ensure that group can receive appropriate funding to support its financial stability.
Create membership for a small fee, this will encourage more people to involve and bring an additional finance source.
Knowledge is power. Limit competition by having more advance research options supported by respected scientist around the world. This will encourage donations by private individuals.
Appendix B: EWG’s Business Strategy
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) comprises of the following six main business divisions within the organization:
Consumer Products Department
Energy Investigation Department
Farming Department
Food Department
Water Department
Toxics Department
EWG’s mission along with the above departments of the company help provide Americans with straight facts, unfiltered and unspun, so they can make healthier choices and enjoy a cleaner environment. It uses the power of information to create cutting-edge research and advocacy that transform government policies and the marketplace in order to conserve land and water, produce and use energy responsibly and ensure that food and consumer products are free of harmful chemicals. The Company investigates government subsidies that encourage wasteful practices and supports policies that promote thoughtful stewardship of our land and natural resources (Environmental Working Group, 2013).
ROLE OF EWG’s DIVISIONS.
EWG divisions are responsible for making overarching corporate strategy decision. The company decides what business division/unit to better support and what acquisition to make. It determines the structure of the company; defies budgeting and capital expenditure processes and sets the aims for corporate divisions as follows:
Consumer Products Department – that offers easy-to-use guides to help people choose products and foods that are free of toxic ingredients and safe for children and environmentally friendly as well. It includes EWG’s periodically updated reports on cell phones usage, children’s products, awareness in cosmetics, especially sunscreens, cleaning products, cookware and food containers.
Energy Investigation Department – that holds energy producers accountable and points the way toward conservation and cleaner energy. EWG inspects drilling procedures and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil, use of ethanol to power vehicles, wood-burning electricity generation, uranium mining and nuclear power.
Farming Department – EWG works to build a farm and food system that will make people healthy, keep working farm and ranch families on the land and improve the environment.
Food Department – that shows how powerful effects on your health and the planet as what you choose to eat. EWG guides you with the facts on your food.
Water Department – provides facts and information that many Americans’ drinking water contains contaminants, and bottled water makers don’t honestly and fully disclose the source or purity of their water. EWG is one of the best places to get the information about your water.
Toxics Department – Various industries don’t have to test chemicals for safety before they go on the market. Thus, EWG steps in where government leaves off, giving people the resources to protect themselves and their families.

Appendix C: EWG’s Business Analyses
Business analysis is important for organization, as it determines the competitiveness of the company’s product lines and strategic businesses units. To understand this concept, I would like first to look at the theoretical perspective and then move on to the analysis of my selected company which is Environmental Working Group (EWG).
Business analysis
Business analysis is a research method where a firm’s products according to their relative competitive position and business growth rate are categorized for the purpose of laying the foundations for sound strategic planning. It helps in deciding which of the products and service should be emphasized and which should be phased out and based on objective criteria. An organization can have multiple programs and services that are to be monitored frequently to know their contribution in the productivity. At the time of cutbacks and scarce resources, the programs and services should be screened out to distinguish the essential and not essential programs and services.
Initially, the business analysis has to determine the contents of the organization activities. If the business has no holdings, it can be a simpler task as compared to the businesses having larger holdings, as it becomes easy to list any products or services offered by the business. In case of large and multinational organizations that have subdivisions, departments and units dedicated to other activities, it is seen that the contents of the organization activities are difficult to list. Those that appeal to a more limited segment can be funded by those desiring the product or service rather than by dues (Bort, 2013).
EWG is an organization providing health care services. It is one of the fastest ruling environmental health research and advocacy organizations. It aims to act as a supervisor to ensure that Americans benefit from the healthier environment by providing them with the correct facts and information regarding the health issues. Thus, EWG focuses on creating a forward-looking research and advocacy that transform governmental policies and market. The organization looks at the government subsidies that promote inefficient practices and mark its support to the policies by the government encouraging the land and natural resources (Environment Working Group, 2013).
The Product line of EWG has a wide and varied range of products and services. These can be categorized in Chemical and toxic testing in plants and new born babies, consumer products, energy, farming, food and water. The organization works with a mission to serve the people and businesses as a watch dog to see that everyone in America gets a cleaner environment. The organization has its own research and advocacy to transform government policies and market place. It works to conserve land and water, produce and use energy responsibly and ensure that food and consumer products should be hygienic (Environment Working Group, 2013).
After discussing the above EWG’s business analysis, I would like to talk about the issues and challenges that the organization has faced in the past few years. This will help in understanding the ways to estimate the core competency of the organization in a better manner.
In the recent years or in the past two or three decades, there has been massive industrialization across the United States. More investment and encouragement by the government has led to opening up a number of industries. A growing number of industries across the country have led to the generation of toxic chemicals in huge amounts. This has not only affected the health of the average Americans, but has also diluted dangerous chemicals to the soil. EWG has taken up the challenge to work on these areas with focus on toxic chemicals and human health; farming and agricultural subsidies, public lands and natural resources.
The organization is looking at the matter from all the aspects and especially taking into account all the stakeholders’ requirements and perspectives. It is therefore working to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act. The Act has passed around 62000 chemicals as safe but recently, there have been cases of intoxication associated with a number of them. Therefore, EWG is working in the direction to a reform of this act and wants the government to pass the separate Kid-Safe Chemical Act.
Recommendations for action
There are a lot of ideas coming from different sections of the society that can be fruitful, if the government wishes to listen to them to imply such act and reforms. Some of them are consumer demand for healthcare services, reducing payments to health care providers, organizing payment for and delivery of care and promoting cost effective standards in care delivery.

Appendix D: References
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Bort, J. (2013). Here 's Why HP Isn 't Going To Sell Off Its PC Business Or Autonomy. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-business-unit-sales-2013-1 Damme, H., & Michel, L. (2008). Health Care Cost Containment. Retrieved from : http://www.surgery-michel.com/doc_uploaded/LM000414.pdf Environmental Working Group (2012). Key Issues. Retrieved from: http://www.ewg.org/key-issues

Environmental Working Group (2012). Consumer Products. Retrieved from: http://www.ewg.org/key-issues/consumer-products Environmental Working Group. (2013). About EWG. Retrieved from: http://www.ewg.org/about-us

Environmental Working Group. (2013). EWG Funding. Retrieved from: http://www.ewg.org/about-us/funding

Environmental Working Group (2012). EGW Annual Report. Retrieved from: http://www.ewg.org/2011annualreport/financials/ Foster, R. (2010). Estimated Financial Effects of the 'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’. NY: DIANE.

Gill, J. and Phil, John. (2010). Research Methods for Managers. SAGE.

Goddard, W.D. & Melville, S. (2004). Research Methodology: An Introduction. Juta and Company Ltd.

Gruber, J. (2011). The Effects of Affordable Care Acts: How Reasonable Are the Projections? Retrieved from: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17168.pdf?new_window=1

Howard, P. (2011). The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on the Economy, Employers, and the Workforce. Retrieved from: http://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/02.09.11_howard.pdf

Medicaid. (2013). Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from: http://www.medicaid.gov/affordablecareact/affordable-care-act.html

Patrick, D. (2013). Official Website of Governor of Massachusetts. Retrieved July 3, 2013 from: http://www.mass.gov/governor/agenda/healthcare/cost-containment/ Reilly, B., & Brown, K. (2011). Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management (10th ed.) Mason: Cengage Learning.

Salam, R. (2013). The Health Care Cost Containment Initiative Report. Retrieved July 4, 2013 from: http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/346300/health-care-cost-containment-initiative-report U.S. Department of Health & Human Sciences. (2013). Affordable Care Act. Retrieved July 3, 2013 from: http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/law/index.html Zikmund, W.G. & Babin, B.J. (2007). Exploring Marketing Research. 9th ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.