(Essay: balanced scorecard) Assume that you are in charge of University Physicians Social Service Agency, which provides counseling services to low- income families. The agency’s costs have been increasing with no corre¬ sponding increase in funding. In an effort to implement some cost reductions, you took the following actions:

• Empowered counselors to make their own decisions about the legiti¬ macy of all low-income claims.

• Told counselors not to review processed claims a second time to em¬ phasize the concept of “do it right the first time.”

• Set an upper and lower control limit of 5 minutes on a standard 15- minute time for consultations to discourage “out-of-control” conditions.

a. Discuss the ethics as well as the positive and negative effects of each of the ideas listed.

b. Develop a balanced scorecard for University Physicians Social Service Agency that incorporates the three changes listed.

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