In a recent study, a health insurance company investigated the number of days patients spent at the

Question:

In a recent study, a health insurance company investigated the number of days patients spent at the hospital. In part of the study, the company selected a sample of patients from four regions of the United States and recorded the number of days each patient spent at the hospital. The table shows the results of the study. At α = 0.01, can the company reject the claim that the mean number of days patients spend at the hospital is the same for all four regions?

(a) Identify the claim and state H₀ and H_a,

(b) Find the critical value and identify the rejection region,

(d) Decide whether to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis,

(e) Interpret the decision in the context of the original claim. Assume the samples are random and independent, the populations are normally distributed, and the population variances are equal. If convenient, use technology.