Health Policy

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

This course is geared towards students with limited experience in HIV/AIDS as a public policy issue. In the first sessions, students learn the key perspectives to frame the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a policy issue, including an economic perspective, a social impact perspective, and a rights perspective. The second half of the course reviews lessons from the international experience in responding to the epidemic. Attention is given to sector-based interventions and necessary coordination between sectors for specific interventions to be effective.

Instructor: Joan Kaufman

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

A conceptual and analytic framework of the field of quality of health care, which includes quality improvement and performance measurement; understanding of the contemporary research and policy initiatives that relate to quality of health care; and insights into the ways that quality relates to issues of provider payment, organization of health care facilities, and costs and access to health care. By the end of the module, students should have an understanding of the centrality of quality of care issues in contemporary health services research, health care policy, and management of health care organizations.

Instructor: Deborah Garnick

Prerequisite: HS 505f. Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

Builds on HS 505f which is focused on the centrality of quality of care issues in contemporary health services research, health care policy, and management of healthcare organizations. The first module, offered as an elective every year, introduces basic concepts and offers an overview of the field. This module is offered as an elective every other year.

Instructor: Deborah Garnick

Prerequisite: HS 513a or permission of instructor. Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

Examines the role of the states in the U.S. health care system. Provides an overview of state activities in health, including state responsibilities for managing health programs and institutions. Models to understand the nature of policy making and politics in states are presented and discussed. Examines major state health programs such as Medicaid. Outlines and explores the policy and legislative processes. States' efforts to reform their health care systems are discussed with special attention to implementation issues, barriers, limits of state action, and prospects for the future of state health reform.

Instructor: Michael Doonan

Prerequisite: HS 513a or permission of instructor. Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

Provides an overview of the evolution and taxonomies of managed care and describes some of its most significant organizational and operational characteristics. Specific areas of focus include its role in Medicaid and Medicare, as well as special strategies such as those adopted for behavioral health care. Draws upon health policy and management literature to inform a discussion about future directions for managed care.

Instructor: Sarita Bhalotra

An overview of the U.S. health care system is followed by a critical analysis of the major issues and trends in the health care field. Concentrates on the activities of federal and state governments and the private sector. Also explores likely future issues affecting our health system. Of special concern is the issue of the large number of Americans with no or inadequate health insurance. A related problem is the rising cost of medical care, which results in increases in the number of uninsured.

Instructors: Stuart Altman and Stanley Wallack

Introduces students to the concepts, theories, and practical problems of managing people in health care organizations. Case material is drawn from hospital, HMO, group practice, public health agency, and for-profit company settings. Students gain a better understanding of the range of strategic and operational problems faced by managers, some of the analytic tools to diagnose problems, and the role of leadership (and management) in improving performance.

Instructor: Jon Chilingerian

Prerequisite: an introductory microeconomics course.

Economic models of demand, production, and markets for goods and services can be used to analyze the key resource allocation questions in health care. Applies economic models to questions of demand concerning the utilization and distribution of health care and to questions of supply, encompassing issues of cost, efficiency, and accessibility of care. The incentives and behavior of consumers and producers of health care are considered using these models.

Instructor: Christine Bishop

Examines current payment practices to health care providers, the problems with current methods, and possible modifications. Focuses only upon hospital care, physician services, and managed care. Covers the different ways that managed care organizations are structured. The payment and performance of managed care organizations and how performance is related to organizational strategies is included.

Instructor: Stanley Wallack

Focuses on refining the analytical skills useful to students for understanding the political and organizational factors influencing health care and health care policy. The readings and issues discussed are not a survey of current issues in health politics. Most readings were selected because they represent an innovative, interesting, or challenging piece of analysis. The goal of each class is to identify and critique the core arguments of the work, the conceptual categories and assumptions on which it is based, and the data presented in its support.

Instructor: Jeffrey Prottas

Provides students with background and tools to carry out economic analysis of individual and public decision-making with respect to life-cycle risks of disability and retirement, including long-term care services that compensate for functional disability. Students will compare and contrast issues and analysis for two groups: elders and working-aged persons with disabilities.

Instructor: Christine Bishop

One of the most important health policy issues facing the nation is how to finance and provide long-term care for persons with chronic illness and disabilities. Uses historical and political economy frameworks to analyze the origins of current long-term care policies and programs. Topics covered include home care, institutional care, concepts of need, informal care, choice and autonomy, acute care connections, integration, private approaches, international comparisons, and reform options. Primary focus will be on the aged, but other populations with disabilities will be considered.

Instructor: Walter Leutz