Business of Healthcare

Catalog description

U.S. healthcare industry promises numerous opportunities for significant improvements. This course uses the lens of business and economics to bring some clarity to the way we think about healthcare and its impact on our nation's wellbeing. We describe the major actors and institutions within the US healthcare system, and the key strategic, managerial, and financial issues facing industry executives and public policy-makers. We start with an initial "big picture" of the healthcare system and lay out some of the principles by which it operates. We introduce a host of "players" and "policy issues". The players are the various healthcare sectors (e.g., provider organizations, medical professions, technology suppliers); the policy issues concern the nagging problems of quality improvement, cost control, improving access, and reducing inequity. The course also covers some of the major intermediaries that connect these segments: insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and wholesalers. Finally, we examine the producers of the innovative products in the healthcare industry - pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medtech sectors- on a global basis.