Concentrations
Health Care Management
Health Care Management
Health care is a large industry facing complex management challenges. The sector accounts for more than 16% of the economy, it is still growing, it employs a majority of women, and it often fails to meet the needs of an aging and increasingly diverse population. All segments of the industry face challenges—managerial and economic—from providers of care, health plans and insurers, suppliers of drugs and biotechnology products, and the vendors for other products and services that support these organizations. All of this complicated by new and ambitious federal and state health reforms.
Health care is different from other industries. Although the demands for leadership skills, strategic thinking, analytic ability and financing knowhow draw from the core MBA curriculum, health care leaders also face unique issues:
- rapidly advancing scientific, technologic, and medical knowledge that can outstrip the ability to evaluate its effectiveness
- the major presence of nonprofit institutions needing access to capital
- the need to mobilize effectively patient-centered IT
- third-party payer control of prices
- extensive government regulation and critical control of standards by external professional organizations
- the need for partnering between hospitals and physicians that is more effective and less divisive
Academic Objectives
At the completion of the concentration, MBA students will be able to recognize these industry differences and have the knowledge and competencies required to make a difference as an effective leader.
Concentration in Health Care (4 courses: 3 required, and 1 elective)
- Strategic Drivers, Policy, and Politics in the Health Sector (GSM 610 — required)
- Health Economics (GSM 612 — required)
- Topics in Health Finance (GSM 613 — required)
- Managing Health Information (GSM 522 — elective)
- Health Care Practicum (GSM 611 — elective)
- Health Law and Ethics (GSM 524 — elective)
- Health Care Quality Management (GSM 520 — elective)
Sample Courses:
Strategic Drivers, Policy, and Politics in the Health Sector (GSM 610 — required)
This course is divided into two parts, each complementary to the other. The first part is an introduction to the health sector, its structure and its performance in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. This part includes an analysis of the drivers of the industry, its composition, and the competitiveness of organizations within major segments. Issues considered are macroeconomics, epidemiology, research & development spending and the flows of technology, demographics, government policy and regulation, and information technology. The second part continues some of these themes, with a focus on health policy and politics. Issues examined include the processes within which legislation and policy are developed, the rationales for public policy, the role of ideas and leadership in policy making, and the behavior of major actors and stakeholders within the myriad health policy communities.
Health Economics (GSM 612 — required)
Microeconomics applied to the health care sector recognizing the most important anomalies. These include the role of insurance and moral hazard in demand theory, sources and symptoms of market failure including asymmetric information and small area variations. Other topics include technology economics, supply regulation, and professional credentialing. Students will write a research paper for this course.
Topics in Health Finance (GSM 613 — required)
Selected topics in finance are covered that represent the unique features of health care and non profits. These include capital structure and debt financing, accounting treatment of revenue for service providers and insurers, conversion of nonprofits to for profits, determinants of business failure, and payment policy. Students will also produce a small group business plan on some startup health care venture.
Health Care Quality Management (GSM 520 — elective)
The health care industry is struggling to change complex and often unwieldy and ineffective operations to ones that are responsive, customer centered and economical. Lean production, six sigma and statistical process control, common in other industries, are finding their way into health care delivery and management. Students carry out projects in local health care organizations.
Managing Health Information (GSM 522 — elective)
A course introducing the student to the technology and management challenges for managing patient and business information in health care organizations. Topics include project management, selecting vendors, planning and managing the introduction of new information systems.