Online MHA Curriculum in Focus: Health Policy and the Health System
In Health Policy and the Health System, you will learn key issues and challenges in the field of health policy and management. You will analyze crucial topics related to the distribution of health and illness in society, and the evolution and organization of the US healthcare system. Viewing the US healthcare system from an international perspective, the course investigates the relative power of stakeholders in the policymaking process and the government’s role in the health system. You will also get a glimpse into the future by focusing on the evolution of patient roles, demography, and technology.
As Professor Crystal Riley explains, policy plays a central role in healthcare management, “Policy drives everything that we do in healthcare. Whether you are an administrator, patient, or provider, what happens in policy impacts everyone. It is important to understand why rules and regulations are put in place, and how policies are going to be formed moving forward."
The second part of the course examines how the government forms and implements national and local health policies and pays for care, with a detailed review of the economics of payment systems. You will look at proposals for health policy reform at the national and local levels, as well as Medicare and Medicaid reforms currently being implemented or considered. You’ll also explore the role of the legal system concerning adverse medical outcomes, economic rights, and individual rights.
Policy in healthcare is vitally important. It sets a general plan of action for desired outcomes and is a fundamental guideline to help make decisions. In the healthcare environment specifically, policy lays the foundation for the delivery of safe and cost-effective quality care.
For students, Professor Judith Baker notes, “Studying health policy is incredibly important to run an efficient system; it will make you a better manager and healthcare provider.”
Course Takeaways
You will be prepared to:
- Communicate, interact, and present evidence to support a position on matters of healthcare with a diverse and changing industry, workforce, and citizenry.
- Analyze healthcare policymaking processes and how they rely on a combination of evidence, ideas, and negotiation with influential stakeholders who stand to lose or gain from different policies.
- Manage and behave legally and ethically in a complex, highly regulated healthcare environment.
- Describe types of medical practice variation, the causes of variation, and the implications for payment policy and cost issues.
- Assess issues related to the uninsured and describe implications at the federal, state, and local levels, including the Affordable Care Act.
- Analyze the challenges of disparities in healthcare, their causes, and opportunities for reform.
Course Syllabus
HEALTH POLICY & THE HEALTH SYSTEM I
Resources
Kovner, A., and Knickman, J., eds. Health Care Delivery in the United States (11th edition). New York: Springer Press, 2015.
Groopman, J. How Doctors Think. New York: Mariner, 2007.
Assessment, Assignments, and Evaluation
You will be assessed in the course through written papers, research projects, class participation, and a final presentation. You will be expected to achieve a satisfactory level of competency corresponding to the course’s modules and objectives.
Course Topics
Module 1: Health Policy and Management (HPAM), Public Health and the Healthcare System
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to differentiate private services from public services.
Module 2: The U.S. Healthcare System Viewed from a Telescope
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to explain the differences among the US patchwork healthcare system and healthcare systems in other wealthy nations.
Module 3: The Roles of Government and other Stakeholders in Health Systems and Health Policy
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to differentiate multiple roles of government intervention in the healthcare sector.
Module 4: Patients, Technology, and the Future of Health Systems
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to discuss how healthcare organizations might respond to demographic and technological changes.
Module 5: Clinical Perspectives
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to compare and contrast how doctors and other clinicians think differently than managers and policymakers.
Module 6: Epidemiologic Perspectives
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to examine how behavior and poverty are determinants of population health.
Module 7: Sociological, Geographic and Cultural Perspectives
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to examine the role of socioeconomic status in affecting population health and use of health services.
Module 8: Economic Perspectives
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to develop an understanding of the strengths and limitations of markets in the healthcare sector.
Module 9: Ethical Perspectives
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to apply the concepts of ethical analysis to HPAM.
Module 10: The Healthcare System and Population Health: How can the Healthcare System Intervene on Social Determinants?
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to propose alternative strategies for improving different dimensions of population health.
Module 11: The Opioid Epidemic
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to distinguish clinical, epidemiological, geographic and political-economic approaches to the opioid epidemic.
Module 12: Quality of Medical Care and Health System Performance
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to discuss possible reasons for variations in medical practice.
Module 13: Access and Rationing; and Final Presentations
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to distinguish divergent perspectives in HPAM and how they help to understand the challenge of assuring access and rationing healthcare.
HEALTH POLICY & THE HEALTH SYSTEM II
Resources
T. Bodenheimer and K. Grumbach, Understanding Health Policy: A Clinical Approach, 7th ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2016)
Assessment, Assignments, and Evaluation
You will be assessed in the course through active participation in class discussions, a final paper memo, a final presentation, and completion of an end-of-term exam. You will be expected to achieve a satisfactory level of competency corresponding to the course’s modules and objectives.
Course Topics
Module 1: The Role of Government in Health
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to articulate the politics and limits of government involvement
Module 2: How the Healthcare “System” is Organized
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to describe how ownership type, structural organization, and hierarchical relationships differ among providers and across jurisdictions.
Module 3: How Healthcare is Financed and Paid for
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to deconstruct the dynamic between healthcare financing and how providers are paid.
Module 4: Medical Practice and Health Policy
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to describe the type/extent of variation in healthcare utilization.
Module 5: Medicare: The Basics of Parts A, B, and C
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to summarize the structure of the Medicare program, including who and what it covers.
Module 6: Medicare Part D: Issues for Reform & Medicaid: The Basics
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to articulate the structure of the Medicaid program, where its funding comes from, where the money is going, and how healthcare is paid for.
Module 7: Medicaid: Impact on Access and Issues for Reform
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to analyze some of the challenges/weaknesses of the Medicaid program and what has been done or proposed to improve it.
Module 8: Major Challenges Confronting the Healthcare System: Disparities
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to analyze the factors contributing to the disparities and evaluate the options for addressing the problem.
Module 9: Major Challenges Confronting the Healthcare System: Costs
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to summarize the extent of the cost problem.
Module 10: Uninsurance: State/Local and Federal Efforts to Expand Coverage
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to evaluate the key elements of the ACA.
Module 11: More Issues Concerning the Pharmaceutical Industry
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to discern the major policy issues related to the pharmaceutical industry.
Module 12: Medical Errors and Medical Malpractice
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to explain the nature of the malpractice “problem” and identify trends in costs related to malpractice and the level of burden on providers and the healthcare company.
Module 13: Involving Patients in Healthcare Decisions
At the conclusion of this module, you should be able to analyze the importance and challenges of involving patients and their families in more routine treatment decisions.