Welcome to the Health Care Management Department

This course introduces and examines the various components of the U.S. health care system. It will cover both private and public financing mechanisms, the forces of market competition and government regulation, and the impact of health policy on key stakeholders. While developing an understanding of the various parts of the U.S. health care system, students will also learn how to apply simple economic reasoning to examine health policy issues.

HCMG 202-401: THE ECONOMICS & FINANCING OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY

(Cross listed with ECON-039)

Tues, Thurs 12:00-1:30 pm

Professor Jonathan Kolstad

Colonial Penn Center Auditorium

1 credit

The course provides an application of economic models to demand, supply, and their interaction in the medical economy. Influences on demand, especially health status, insurance coverage, and income will be analyzed. Physician decisions on the pricing and form of their own services, and on the advice they offer about other services, will be considered. Competition in medical care markets, especially for hospital services, will be studied. Special emphasis will be placed on government as demander of medical care services. Changes in Medicare payment and alternate forms of health reform are among the public policy issues to be addressed.

HCMG 204-401: COMPARATIVE HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

(Cross listed with HCMG 859-401)

Mon, Wed 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Professor Patricia Danzon

Lauder Fisher Auditorium

1 credit

This course examines the structure of health care systems in different countries, focusing on financing, reimbursement, delivery systems and adoption of new technologies. We study the relative roles of private sector and public sector insurance and providers, and the effect of system design on cost, quality, efficiency and equity of medical services. Some issues we address are normative: Which systems and which public/private sector mixes are better at achieving efficiency and equity? Other issues are positive: How do these different systems deal with tough choices, such as decisions about new technologies? Our main focus is on the systems in four large OECD countries—Germany, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom—but we also look at other countries with interesting systems- including Italy, Chile, and Singapore. We will draw lessons for the U.S. from foreign experience and vice versa.

HCMG 211-401: LEGAL ASPECTS OF HEALTH CARE

(Cross listed with HCMG 854-401)

Tues, Thurs 1:30-3:00 pm

Professor Arnold Rosoff

Lecturer Robert Field

Huntsman Hall 340

1 credit

This course offers a current and historical overview of the regulation of health care delivery in the U.S. It examines principles and practical applications of the laws that affect the operational decisions of health care providers, payors, and managers and that impact development of markets for health care products and services. Also considered are the social, moral, and ethical issues encountered in trying to balance the interests, needs and rights of individual citizens against those of society. For part of the term, the class will divide into two groups so that students can focus on their choice of (a) health care management or (b) selected issues of patients' rights.

HCMG 213-001: HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT AND STRATEGY

Mon, Wed 12:00-1:30 pm

Lecturer Andrew Mulcahy

Colonial Penn Center Auditorium

1 credit

This course presents an overview of the business of health and how a variety of health care organizations have gained, sustained, and lost competitive advantage amidst intense competition, widespread regulation, high interdependence, and massive technological, economic, social, and political changes. Specifically, we evaluate the challenges facing health care organizations using competitive analysis, identify their past responses, and explore the current strategies they are using to manage these challenges (and emerging ones) more effectively. Students will develop generalized skills in competitive analysis and the ability to apply those skills in the specialized analysis of opportunities in producer (e.g. biopharmaceutical, medical product, information technology), purchaser (e.g. insurance), and provider (e.g. hospitals, nursing homes, physician) organizations and industry sectors. The course is organized around a number of readings, cases, presentations, and a required project.

SPRING COURSES

HCMG 101-001: HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

Tues, Thurs

Professor Scott Harrington

1 credit

HCMG 203-001: CLINICAL ISSUES IN HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT: DOCTORS, PATIENTS AND MANAGERS IN MODERN SOCIETY

Mon, Wed 3:00-4:30 pm
Professor David Asch

1 credit

This course will explore the effects of the changing health care environment on the physician, patient and health care manager. It is intended for any undergraduate with an interest in how 1/7th of the American economy is organized as well as those who are planning careers as health care providers or managers. The course complements other health care courses (that take a societal perspective) by focusing on the individuals who participate in the health care enterprise. There are no prerequisites, as the course will stand on its own content. The course will be divided into modules that focus on the participants of the health care process and the process itself. We will analyze the patient, the doctor, and manager in light of the patient-doctor interaction, the turbulent health care marketplace, expensive new technologies, resource allocation, and ethics.

HCMG 212-001: HEALTH CARE QUALITY AND OUTCOMES: MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT

Tues, Thurs 3:00-4:30 pm

Professor Jeffrey H. Silber

1 credit

Prerequisite: Introductory Statistics or Permission of Instructor

This course will familiarize students with methods used to assess the quality of hospital or provider health care using outcomes data, and to understand and evaluate studies involving health care outcomes. Students are exposed to the mechanics of hospital quality evaluation and challenged to evaluate the medical and health services research literature on health care evaluation, as well as to make inferences regarding hospital quality and the comparison or rankings of hospitals or providers. Topics will include the history of outcomes analysis; the conceptual framework for outcomes studies; consumer demand for information; an overview of medical data and data collection systems; a description of outcome statistics and severity adjustments currently in use; the study of excess variation in outcomes; and the use of guidelines to assess outcomes. By the end of the course, students will have developed a thorough appreciation of the current methods used by hospitals and health care providers to evaluate medical outcomes, as well as those used by consumers to choose hospitals and providers.

HCMG 215-001: MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS OF PHARMACEUTICAL, BIOTECH, AND MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRIES

Mon, Wed 12:00 -1:30
Professor Patricia Danzon
1 credit

This course provides an overview of the management, economic and policy issues facing the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. The course perspective is global, with emphasis on the U.S. as the largest and most profitable market. Critical issues we will examine include: R&D intensive cost structure and rapid technological change; biotechnology and genomics startups and alliances with the pharma industry; a complex global marketplace in which prices are regulated in most countries and customers include governments and insurers, as well as physicians, pharmacists and consumers now reachable through DTC; intense and evolving M&A, including mergers, joint ventures, and complex alliances; government regulation of every business function: R&D, pricing, manufacturing, and promotion; and global products and multinational firms. We use industry and Wharton experts from various disciplines to address these issues.

HCMG 302-401: ECONOMICS AND FINANCING OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY

(Cross listed with ECON 236)

Tues, Thurs 1:30-3:00 pm
Professor Guy David

1 credit
(Note: HCMG 302 and HCMG 202 cannot both be taken for credit. )
* Pre-requisites for HCMG 302-401: ECON 1 & ECON 2 OR BPUB 250

This course provides an application of economic principles to the health care sector. By recognizing the importance of scarcity and incentives this course will focus on the critical economic issues in producing, delivering and financing health care. In particular, the course will analyze determinants of demand for medical care, such as health status, insurance coverage, and income; the unique role of physicians in guiding and shaping the allocation of resources in medical care markets; and competition in medical care markets, especially among hospitals. Special emphasis will be placed on the evaluation of policy instruments such as government regulation, antitrust laws, 'sin taxes' on ciigarettes and alcohol, and public health programs. The course will use more advanced quantitative methods and formal economic theory; knowledge of calculus and basic microeconomics are recommended.

FALL COURSES

SPRING COURSES