Undergraduate Course Descriptions

HCMG1010 - Health Care Systems (Course Syllabus)

This introductory course takes a policy and politics angle to health care's three persistent issues - access, cost and quality. The roles of patients, physicians, hospitals, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies will be established. The interaction between the government and these different groups will also be covered. Current national health care policy initiatives and the interests of class members will steer the specific topics covered in the course. The course aims to provide skills for critical and analytical thought about the U.S. health care system and the people in it.

HCMG2020 - Econ & Fincing-Hlthcr Dl (Course Syllabus)

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 and regulation of managed care are among the public policy issues to be addressed. Prerequisite: If course requirement not met, permission of instructor required.

Prerequisites: ECON 0100 OR ECON 0110

HCMG2040 - Comparative Hc Systems (Course Syllabus)

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, prototypical OECD countries--Germany, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom--and then look at other countries with interesting systems- including Italy, Chile, Singapore, Brazil, China and India. We draw lessons for the U.S. from foreign experience and vice versa.

HCMG2130 - Hc Mgmt&Strat (Course Syllabus)

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.

Prerequisites: HCMG 1010

HCMG2150 - Mgmt&Econofpharma,Biotec (Course Syllabus)

This course explores the key phases of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology product lifecycle. The product journey begins in the lab where scientists explore a vast array of compounds against diseases (therapeutic targets). Compounds that perform best enter the capital-intensive clinical trial phase aimed at assessing the product’s safety and efficacy. In parallel, regulatory agencies guide and govern these trials and ultimately decide which products are approved for use in patients. Once approved, launched, and priced, products face many dynamic market forces including competitors trying to steal share, government and private payers placing downward pressure on price, regulatory agencies controlling what manufacturers can and cannot say about their products, generic manufacturers challenging existing patents, and finally patients and physicians who behave both rationally and irrationally when deciding which product to use. While the course perspective is global in nature, the emphasis is on the U.S., the largest and most profitable market. In addition, we will delve into the world of biotech start-ups from company creation and financing, to how they make decisions which compounds to advance. We will also explore how large pharma views the biotech industry to bolster their existing pipelines and drive shareholder value. Through case studies, readings, guest speakers, and in-class exercises, students will learn concepts and analytical frameworks and acquire the tools and skills necessary to become the future leaders of the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

Prerequisites: HCMG 1010 OR ECON 0100 OR ECON 0110

HCMG2160 - Health Ins & Hc Strategy (Course Syllabus)

This course combines the insights of health economics with a strategic perspective on the business of health. The first section will consider the costs and benefits of medical interventions, while the second considers insurance theory and places special emphasis on the challenges facing firms in the face of the rising costs of health benefits as well as opportunities for private insurers operating in publically financed markets. The third section will analyze strategies of vertical and horizontal integration and their effect on the balance of power in local healthcare markets. Finally, the course will cover the effects of reform on firm incentives. The course will be taught using a mix of lectures and cases.

HCMG2500 - Health Care Reform (Course Syllabus)

This course provides students with a rigorous understanding of the current American health care system and how it is likely to evolve over the next decade. The course will focus on six topics: 1) the development of the current health care system; 2) challenges of health care costs, quality, and access; 3) lessons of previous attempts to reform the system including the Affordable Care Act (ACA); 4) analysis of current policies regarding provider payment, technology, and electronic health records and how various sectors (e.g. public health and hospitals) are evolving in the current system; 5) drug pricing and potential strategies for reform, and 6) future megatrends in American health care system. Throughout the course, lessons will integrate basic health economics, history, health policy, and politics to elucidate key principles for understanding the health care system. The course will also examine at least one other country’s health system for comparison. The course will end with a consideration of the long-term outlook for the structure of the US health system and potential reform. Numerous expert guest speakers will give their perspectives throughout the semester.

HCMG3020 - Econ & Fin of HC Delivery (Course Syllabus)

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 cigarettes and alcohol, and public health programs. Students who take HCMG 302 may not also take HCMG 202 (ECON 039) for further credit.; knowledge of calculus and basic microeconomics is recommended.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of calculus and basic microeconomics is recommended.

HCMG3220 - Health Care Ecosystem (Course Syllabus)

This course provides an application of economic principles to the health care ecosystem, focusing primarily on the US health care sector. By recognizing the importance of scarcity and incentives, this course will focus on the critical economic issues in producing, financing, and delivering efficient and equitable health care. In particular, the course will discuss the tension between cost, access and quality of care; analyze the determinants of demand for medical care; discuss the role of health insurance and the complexities it brings; study the unique role of physicians in guiding and shaping the allocation of resources in medical care markets; and analyze 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, and public health programs. Knowledge of calculus and basic microeconomics is highly recommended. Students who take HCMG 3220 may not also take HCMG 3520 for further credit.

HCMG3330 - Leading the HC Workforce (Course Syllabus)

The nature of the healthcare industry presents a unique set of managerial challenges. The health care workforce operates in a complex, fast-paced, uncertain, and interdependent environment. Power dynamics, hierarchy, and specialization make coordination particularly difficult in this setting. The course will provide students with frameworks and tools from management science tailored to the health care setting. At the end of course, students will: (1) be able to apply evidence-based management principles to health care contexts and (2) have practical skills for leading, managing, and thriving in health care.

HCMG3520 - Health Care Services Del (Course Syllabus)

The purpose of this course is to apply economics to an analysis of the health care industry, with special emphasis on the unique characteristics of the US healthcare markets, from pre-hospital to post-acute care. This course focuses on salient economic features of health care delivery, including: the role of nonprofit providers, the effects of regulation and antitrust activity on hospitals, the degree of input substitutability within hospitals, the nature of competition in home health care, public versus private provision of emergency medical services, the effect of specialty hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, the economics of direct-to-consumer advertising and its effect on drug safety, defining and improving medical performance in hospitals, specialization and investment in physical and human capital, and shifting of services between inpatient and outpatient settings and its effect on health care costs and quality.

HCMG3570 - HC Data and Analytics (Course Syllabus)

Health care data creates unparalleled opportunities to save lives, improve health, strengthen the health care workforce, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. But it also presents a unique set of challenges ranging from privacy to data consistency. In this course, we begin by surveying the health care data landscape and then turn to how to use this rich data to better manage care and organizations. We will refine the art of asking good questions and gain first-hand experience applying analytics to answer them. We will also examine innovative businesses focused on health care data and analytics. At the end of this course, students will: (1) Understand the topography of the health care data landscape, (2) Have the skills necessary to be thoughtful consumers of evidence on health care, (3) Be able to use data and analytics to improve care and health care management, and (4) Anticipate business opportunities in health care data and analytics.

HCMG3910 - Hc Entrepreneurship (Course Syllabus)

Delivering basic health care advances worldwide and continuing to increase lifespan and quality (in an affordable manner) represent some of the major societal challenges of our time. Addressing these challenges will require innovation in both medical technology and the ways in which health services are delivered. Through readings, cases, guest lectures, and your own entrepreneurial work outside of class, we will examine the environment facing prospective health care entrepreneurs: (1) sources of health care innovation; (2) the many "customers" in health care: patients, doctors, hospitals, insurers, and regulators; (3) the powerful established firms with developed clinical and sales expertise; (4) the investing community. Along the way we will develop a framework for thinking about what is different (and what is not) about the challenges of health care entrepreneurship.