Course Number

MPA 3040-01

Syllabus Date

Spring 2017

Department course is offered by

COPACE - College of Professional and...

Course description

There is broad agreement that the current U.S. health care system is imperfect. Some argue that government-mandated universal health care is the best way to keep the country healthy. Others argue that a new federal bureaucracy would worsen the situation. In the United States healthcare spending grew in 2015 reaching $3.2 trillion or approximately $10,000 per person; a 5.8% increase over 2014. As a share of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, health spending accounted for 17.5% with questionable results. The Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that numbers may rise to 25% of GDP by 2025 without changes to federal law. Harvard Business School Professor and global consultant Michael Porter posits that “The U.S. health care system is on a dangerous path, with a toxic combination of higher costs, uneven quality, frequent errors, and limited access to care…”

This graduate level online course examines the broad arena of health care in the United States as an introduction to health care administration. Specifically, it surveys a variety of past and present proposals to make access to quality affordable health care more equitable. Health care occupations and access points (outpatient and inpatient facilities and services) medical technologies, health care financing, and health care policy creation and a look at healthcare in other countries are among the topics explored. Varied speakers will augment the classroom discussion.

It is impossible to cover in one introductory seminar the scope of didactic material from the academic discipline of health care administration. Therefore, this course attempts to familiarize the student with selected key considerations of contemporary health care administration and policy. Subsequent coursework on health care leadership, health policy, health care finance, strategic management (decision working) in health care and related topics will offer a more complete understanding of the health care administration discipline.

The specific competencies developed in this Directed Study are:

  1. An awareness of the trajectory of health care delivery, access, quality and affordability in the United States.
  2. The “social contract” which exists between the government and private sector of our economy with the citizen sector’s expectation of affordable and accessible health care.

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