Curriculum: Health Care Policy & Regulation Graduate Certificate

The course is intended to provide the student with a systems perspective of U.S. health and health care structure and function. As the MHA Program’s introductory course, it provides a basis for all subsequent courses including leadership, systems analysis, finance and economics, quality improvement, policy and law, and others. Topics include an overview of the social, political, economic and structural dynamics which shape health care in the United States as well as current and likely future imperatives health care managers will face. Evaluation is competency-based; students will be expected to demonstrate proficiency at seeking and applying evidence to managerial decision-making, the effective communication of ideas, and a number of different types of analyses relevant to cases and issues affecting U.S. healthcare today.

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of how policy is developed and how policies can affect health care in the United States. The course prepares students to understand the steps in the policy creation process and then apply concepts in policy analysis and advocacy. There are five focus areas: need and demand, healthcare finance, ethics & law, preparedness, and policy evaluation. Within the five focus areas, we will examine topics using Bardach’s Eightfold Path: problem definition, agenda setting, implementation, evaluation, and modification. The course will present case studies and readings about real-world problems that health professionals face.

This course presents an introduction to the legal and ethical issues that arise in the management of health services organizations. Topics include ethics in business and clinical decision-making, tools for understanding ethics and ethical analysis, professional and organizational guidelines in making ethical decisions, including codes of ethics and mission statements, organizational responses to ethical issues, including ethics processes, such as institutional ethics committees and institutional review boards, conflicts of commitment and conflicts of interest, patient and community concerns, and end-of-life decisions. Additionally, the course will review legal principles development, application and assessment, and resource allocation and social responsibility. Other topics covered include liability, health care institutions as corporations, the nature, and scope of the public health authority, antitrust, fraud and abuse, privacy and confidentiality, tax implications, regulatory oversight, legal requirements for access to health care, nondiscrimination, conflicts of interest and constitutional constraints on public health initiatives.

This course provides an introduction and overview to healthcare leadership, human resources management, and organizational behavior in healthcare settings, reflecting the uniqueness of this sector as well as the universal concepts and principles utilized in the development of effective healthcare administrators and leaders. This course integrates theory with practice through readings, written assignments, group projects, and discussion boards from different organizational perspectives. The development of leadership, managerial and organizational skills will be accomplished through a strong emphasis on self-reflection and self-analysis utilizing the tools of the course. This course aims to provide a relevant understanding of organizational dynamics such as performance, organizational culture, teamwork, individual and shared values, and cultural competency. It will examine how healthcare leaders and their organizations relate to each other internally and to their external environments. Topics include values-driven leadership, team effectiveness, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, conflict management, human resources management, employee behavior and appraisal, and assessment and evaluation of leadership performance. This course emphasizes the reflection of the students’ past and current experiences with the integration of current evidence-based leadership and human resources management principles. The students will be required to submit their feedback from self-evaluation assignments, surveys, inventory tools, and group work that is intended to provide insight, awareness, interdisciplinary collaboration, and professional and personal development for ongoing growth in healthcare leadership roles.

This course covers financial and managerial aspects of healthcare financial management. It provides a broad introduction to key concepts, issues, tools and vocabulary useful for administrators, managers and policymakers. There are three main topic areas covered in the course: financial accounting, finance and managerial accounting, and the focus is on use, not the preparation of accounting information. Topics include financial analysis and management; and methods and techniques for evaluating costs and cost-effectiveness of health, medical and pharmaceutical interventions. This course is the first of a two-course sequence in healthcare finance.

This course builds on the accounting and financial concepts introduced in FIN 7021. The continued exploration of the healthcare environment includes an in-depth examination of third-party payer systems including managed care plus the legal and regulatory environment, particularly for non-profits. There are four main financial topic areas covered in the course: capital acquisition and structure, financial condition analysis and forecasting, Revenue cycle management and capital allocation. This course is the second of a two-course sequence in health care finance.

This course follows ECON 7021 and introduces the principles, methods and concepts of three different aspects of strategic management as it relates to health care organizations: 1) strategic planning and management, 2) competitive positioning and 3) alliances, mergers and acquisitions. Methods of evaluating and analyzing the external environment will include discussions of regulatory control, consolidation of industries, disruptive technologies and crisis/prevention management. The interaction of forces inside the organization such as structure, governance, resource management and culture will be analyzed for their impact on the organization’s competitive position and strategic direction.

This foundational course uses the subject matter of global health to teach students the critical management skill of how to analyze the structure and functions of healthcare systems. Once mastered, these skills can be applied to the assessment of systems at any level and in any type of community or setting. As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to all, American healthcare managers working in a world where global health issues are of immediate and critical relevance to strategic and day-to-day operations. The building blocks of health care systems, their impacts on intermediary and outcome variables, and key stakeholder and other analytical tools will be applied to various national systems from high and low-resource nations around the world. Cultural, social, environmental, and other variables impacting understanding of health and illness, and the policies and systems built to address them, will be examined. In addition to institutional health care systems, the roles played by the marketplace, transnational organizations, private entities, and others in global health care will be explored.

This course includes both theoretical models for health care quality work, as well as practical strategies for application and implementation of improvement initiatives in a health care setting. The course will review the Institute of Medicine’s Aims to drive safe, effective, efficient, timely, patient-centered and equitable care. Students will learn various sources and categories of data that have proved useful in driving outcomes through quality improvement. It delineates the qualitative and quantitative quality improvement strategies employed by managers to engage in effective decision-making.

The quality of health care in the United States has garnered significant attention among health care professionals and the public. Health care quality is driven fundamentally by the leadership and management practices of health care organizations. This course will review approaches to building and sustaining a culture of performance excellence in health care organizations. It emphasizes the use of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework for designing, implementing, and improving organizational practices that influence health care quality. Topics include understanding patient and stakeholder needs, strategic and operations planning, workforce practices, measurement and analysis, leadership, organization assessment, and change management.

This course introduces the discipline of health informatics and covers emerging trends. Various information systems, technologies and applications utilized in the context of health and healthcare are introduced. Their characteristics, strengths, challenges, purpose and impact are taught. Impact on patients, populations and healthcare providers is emphasized. Factors influencing adoption and use of various clinical and health information systems and technologies are taught. Key information technologies and systems such as electronic health records, health information exchanges, personal health records, public health information systems and mobile health technologies are introduced in this course. Topics such as telemedicine, interoperability and technical concepts are taught, and evaluation framework is introduced.

The goal of this course is use economic analysis to introduce and to understand the basic elements and dynamics of the US healthcare system with a particular emphasis on policy implications. Over the past 50 years, the size and scope of the US healthcare economy has grown considerably. In 1960, the US spent about 5% of its gross national product on health. We now spend $3.2 Trillion, or 18%+ of the gross national product on healthcare. This is not only double what it was twenty years ago, but is a per capita level far higher than other industrialized countries. The greater spending, however, does not seem to have purchased much better health. Why does the United States spend so remarkably on medical care for results that are not so remarkable? In seeking explanations and solutions, we will study the healthcare system in the United States and understand the factors that drive our appetite for healthcare goods and services. We will then examine alternatives to our current system, paying special attention to the ongoing legislative reform efforts coming from Washington DC.