Health Services Delivery: A Managerial Economic Approach

Catalog description

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, defining and improving medical performance in hospitals, specialization and investment in physical and human capital, shifting of services between inpatient and outpatient settings and its effect on health care costs and quality, and innovation in primary care from retail clinics to patient-centered medical homes and retainer-based medicine.