Economics in Healthcare

You must read through all of the powerpoints and presentations to be able to do the project. It is mandatory to be able to do the assignment

For this project, you are expected to identify a problem, issue or challenge in your setting (e.g., areas that could or should be reformed such as payment mechanisms, delivery protocols, fragmented care teams, etc.) or a similar work environment (hospital, clinical practice, health care administration). Using the concepts from economics that we will discuss each week, you will design relevant and feasible features (reforms) that could be adopted to improve the delivery of health care from your perspective.

You will effectively build on your experience as a health care provider/administrator and leader to construct a case study that explores the main challenges and potential solutions to your setting through the lens of economics.

It may be the case that the reform features (such as incentives, subsidies, cost-controls, taxes, etc.) that benefit you (or a practice or a professional in a similar position to yours) may not benefit someone else from the class, and vice versa.

Objectives:

To identify the aspects that could/should be changed to improve the delivery of health care in your professional setting.

To translate the challenges you identify (organizational, financial, structural/institutional, behavioral, access) into the language of economics and policy.

To construct a case/argument for the reform features you propose that take into consideration relevant aspects of health care in your professional setting (taking into account stakeholders such as, for example, state and federal governments, public and private health care providers, hospital board members, and/or health insurance plans).

To engage in discussions on how the changing economic and policy landscape in the American health care setting will affect your ability to deliver better care positively or even negatively and how economic concepts can elucidate these dynamics.

Week 2 of the course:

For your case study, refer to specific features of the ACA (http://files.kff.org/attachment/fact-sheet-summary-of-the-affordable-care-act ) to anchor your case study in the context of the economic and policy structures that play a key direct or indirect role on the problem/issue/challenge you have identified.

e.g., If the focus of your case study is the high rates of inpatients admissions originating from the emergency department discuss the features in todays economic and policy framework perhaps despite coverage of preventive screenings, individuals are not adhering to them. Another issue you may have identified is the still large number of individuals without health insurance coverage or usual source of care.

Formulate recommendations. Describe a specific set of features using policy and economic levers as well as organizational structures that you propose could improve the situation you have identified. For instance, if your setting is a physician-owned specialty practice and youve identified that participation in a clinically integrated network is your recommendation, then include how your recommendation interacts with the policy  and economic features of the healthcare system.

Identify and Address Solutions (2-3 pgs. total)

Part 1: Identify the health care challenges that your entity faces. (1-2 pgs.)
Part 2: Formulate actionable recommendations to address described health care challenges presented in Part 1. (1 pg.)

Data and analysis (1-2 pages).

The goal of this part will be for you to dedicate time to understand the cost and potential benefits of your proposed recommendation(s). Given that each participant will be building different case studies from different settings, the goal of this week is not to conduct an in-depth statistical analysis (though if you do have access to relevant data, and would like to do a more concrete analysis that would be fine). Rather, the goal is for you to feel comfortable including statistics and relevant data (publicly available information, statistics from peer-reviewed articles) that strengthen and support the validity of your recommendation.

Structure of Health Care Systems (1 page)

Describe the organizational structure that would best address the challenges that you identified in week 2.

Using the concepts of the class and your own experience describe the opportunities and challenges that your recommended solutions may experience. Include information of how you propose to address potential challenges.

Part 1
Write (1-2 pgs.) which discusses the entire context, stakeholders etc.

Compile entire Reform proposal (all assignments)

Part 2:  Attach Executive Summary (A 8-10 slide presentation that summarizes the course project).