A benefits administrator is interested in determining whether the company's employees prefer Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO), Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), or Point of Service (POS) medical programs. The administrator first asks all 200 of the company's employees to rate their overall satisfaction with employee benefits on a 1-7 scale. A total of 77 employees respond to the survey. Then, using the personnel records, she looks up the type of plan each employee is enrolled in:

35 of the 77 employees are enrolled in the HMO program

28 of the 77 employees are enrolled in the PPO program

14 of the 77 employees are enrolled in the POS program

The administrator finds that employees enrolled in the HMO rated their overall satisfaction with their benefits higher than the employees enrolled in the PPO or POS programs. She concludes that employees prefer the HMO program and decides to eliminate the other medical plans.

Please describe the following:

1. The study's design

2. The predictor(s) [independent variable(s)]

3. Outcome(s) [dependent variable(s)]

4. Threats to internal and external validity (and a justification for each; this does not need to be exhaustive, just mention the threats most likely to impact the conclusions)

5. Describe whether you think the conclusions that the researcher came to are accurate and justify your conclusion.