Graduate Certificate in Health Care Strategy and Marketing

HSM 420 uses the tools of managerial economics to analyze the business institutions, practices, and regulation of the health care industry. The course covers the health care value chain including: i) purchasers of health care services (e.g., government, private insurers and employers); ii) providers of health care services (e.g., hospitals and physicians); and iii) manufacturers of medical devices, pharmaceuticals and supplies. Each unit of the course consists of an economic overview of the industry segment, including a review of the managerial economics issues that are currently important in the industry segment. Topics include the economic structure of the U.S. healthcare industry, including its vertical relations; placing the US healthcare system in international context and understanding the role that technology plays in driving long term change in the industry; the fiscal crises that beset Medicare and recent payment innovations that Medicare has made that may fundamentally change the organization and delivery of health care services; private health insurance in the U.S.; provider sector restructuring, both horizontally and vertically, to meet the challenges posed by population health and capitation; the evolution of managed care as embodied in Accountable Care Organizations and consumer driven health care; quality measurement and reward, disease management and pay-for-performance; management challenges of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, including managing the flow of innovation and marketing and distributing new products; current trends in both the adoption of and payment for medical technology including cost-effectiveness analysis; and the likely effects of health care reform on the health economy.

Basic marketing and economic concepts are integrated with the unique institutional features of health care markets to develop a framework for strategic and business planning for a health care organization. A special focus is placed on the practical elements of plan development.

This course applies the principles of organizational economics and strategy to the institutional setting of health sciences. The course focuses on the interdependence between the delivery, financing, and technology sectors of the health care marketplace. It discusses how management and strategy choices within each sector are responses to the unique institutional factors in the health care marketplace and how the strategies of each sector affect the behavior of the others. Students will leave the course with an ability to think productively about management and strategy challenges within each of the three health science sectors.