Maximum allowable cost program

More stringent forms of the copayment approach are maximum allowable cost programs. Those programs require that the patient pay the full difference between the branded prescription and the normal prescription copayment. In the extreme case, mandatory generic substitution programs require that generics be dispensed or the patient receive no reimbursement at all. 

Diversified Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., with roots going back to the early 1970s, is credited for establishing maximum allowable cost (MAC) programs and mandatory generic drug programs.It has been associated with SmithKline Beecham Healthcare Services and was once a subsidiary of the United Healthcare Corporation, but is now part of the Express Scripts network. 

The Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement (ILI) Program aids in the purchase of laboratory equipment for use in undergraduate laboratories at all levels. Annual funding has been 23 million for the past 5 years and is anticipated to remain at this level for the near future. Typically, 2300 proposals are received, resulting in approximately 600 awards per year. ILI has two components The major one accepts proposals for equipment only, the other, known as Leadership in Laboratory Development, seeks to support the development of exemplary national models for laboratory curricula by providing funds for personnel and supplies as well as for equipment. Five percent of the ILI budget is devoted to Leadership projects, and preliminary proposals are required. A 50% institutional match for equipment costs is necessary for all ILI proposals. The maximum allowable request from NSF is 100,000. In the 1992 competition, 60 proposals to initiate or improve materials science laboratories were received 15 were from departments of chemistry, the remainder from engineering units. 

Very frequently non-optimal setpoint trajectories are used for controlling reactor temperatures in batch reactors [25,39,179,180]. Reactor temperatures maybe allowed to increase from ambient temperatures up to a maximum temperature value, in order to use the heat released by reaction to heat the reaction medium and save energy (reduce energy costs). The temperature increase is almost always performed linearly, because of hardware limitations and simplicity of controller programming. After reaching the maximum allowed temperature value, reactor temperature is kept constant for a certain time interval, for production of polymer material at isothermal conditions. At the end of the batch, the reaction temperature is increased in order to reduce the residual monomer content of the final resin, usually with the help of a second catalyst. Heuristic optimum temperature trajectories were also formulated for batch polymerizations of acrylamide and quaternary ammonium cationic monomers, in order to use the available heat of reaction [181]. The batch time was split into two batch periods an isothermal reaction period and an adiabatic reaction period. 

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