HPM 500 (2) Introduction to the US Health Care System
Fall, spring. Required for all MPH students. Introduces students to the US health care system, both the public and private sector. Examines the structure of the health system, current topics in health care reform, the policy process, and advocacy for public health.
HPM 501 (3) Health Policy and Resource Allocation
Fall. Required for HPM students. Examines the historical development, structure, operation, and current and future directions of the major components of the US health care system. Emphasizes the influences and contributions of medical technology, research findings, and societal values to health care-related policy decisions, the establishment of system priorities, and the allocation of health care resources.
HPM 502 (2) Introduction to Health Care Management
Fall. Required for HPM students. Introduces the theory and principles of management. Topic areas include motivation, leadership, organizational change, human resources administration, organizational theory, strategic planning, and management control systems. Teaches practical applications of management theory through case studies and group discussions.
HPM 510 (3) Financial and Managerial Accounting
Fall. Introduces the basic accounting concepts, analytical techniques, decision-making tools, and vocabulary needed for effective management of health care organizations. The first part of the course is devoted to the fundamentals of accounting, including preparation and analysis of financial statements. The second part covers the generation, use, and interpretation of accounting information for making managerial decisions.
HPM 511 (3) Financial Management for Health Care Organizations
Spring. Prerequisite: HPM 510. Introduces the fundamental theories and relationships guiding financial decision making as they apply to the management of health care organizations. Focuses on the key managerial issues related to maintaining and expanding a health care organization’s assets. Selected topics in this course include short-term assets management, discounting cash flow analysis, capital acquisition decisions, and capital budgeting decisions.
HPM 520 (3) Development Economics and Global Health Policy
Fall. Prerequisites: HPM 501 or GH 501, HPM 500 for non HPM students, or permission of instructor. This course introduces students to foundational concepts in development economics and relates them to health policy issues around the world. We will study the forces that contribute to economic development, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, and explore the concept and measurement of poverty in these settings. We will also focus on the microeconomic fundamentals of economic development: how individuals, households, communities, and policymakers make decisions that enable and constrain their capabilities. We will focus on topic areas such as fertility, nutrition, health, education, labor markets, savings and credit, and intra-household decision-making. Empirical evidence and theory from low- and middle-income countries will be used, paying special attention to methods, context, and contributions to policy and practice.
HPM 521 (3) Introduction to Health Economics
Fall. Introduces basic supply and demand concepts applied to health care markets, using microeconomic theory. Topics of discussion include what does or does not make health care distinctive as an economic good, the market for health care in theory and practice, and the behavior of stakeholders within the market given the incentives they face.
HPM 522 (3) Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programs
Spring. Prerequisite: HPM 521 or permission of instructor. Prerequisites: HPM 500 or HPM 501, and HPM 521. Examines the theory, methods, and applications of economic evaluations (cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, cost-utility) of health care programs, using examples from both developing and developed countries. A focus is decision analytic modeling. Applications range from economic evaluations of medical procedures to economic evaluations of intervention programs in developing countries.
HPM 523 (3) Public Financing in the Health Care System
Spring. Prerequisites: HPM 501 and HPM 521. Focuses on the principles of public finance to enable students to understand US taxation and subsidization policies that affect health. The burden of the revenue structure used at the national and state levels to finance health care is studied. Students learn to apply the concepts of microeconomics and public finance to critically evaluate equity and efficiency in the financing of health care in the US with an emphasis on federal and state policies.
HPM 525 (3) Health Services Data Analytics in the Workplace
Prerequisites: HPM 521 & BIOS 500, or with permission of the instructor. Provides practical training on how to work with data and perform data analytics (e.g., charts and pivot tables) using Excel. Concepts will range from identifying and cleaning data sources to completing and evaluating analytical deliverables. For the final project, students will have greater flexibility in choosing data sources and topics that align with their policy or management professional goals. Weekly sessions will include a lecture and lab component.
HPM 531 (3) Contemporary Issues in Health Economics and Healthcare Management
Fall. In this course students will develop and practice the skills needed to stay on top of the contributions of leading thinkers in healthcare management, policymaking, and research to our understanding of health care markets and the systems key stakeholders. Students will review, integrate, and apply key principles and frameworks of health economics and financial management through the examination of key contemporary issues in this setting including pharmaceutical pricing, collaboration among diverse providers under bundled payments, and hospital consolidation and antitrust.
HPM 533 Qualitative Methods for Health Services Research
Spring. This course introduces students to the theoretical and practical applications of qualitative research. Emphasis is placed on qualitative methods most commonly associated with health services research, including informant interviews, document reviews, and focus groups. Students will gain practical experience with qualitative methodology as well as learn the basic approaches to mixing qualitative and quantitative methods. Students will complete a research proposal by the end of the semester that reflects a mixed method study.
HPM 534 (2) Grant Writing in Public Health
Fall. Basic introduction to grant writing for students with little or no grant writing experience. Topics covered will include determining which grants you should apply for, the basic components of a grant proposal, data sources and resources, and the funder’s perspective. Each student will plan and write sections of a short foundation grant proposal.
HPM 540 (2) Human Resource Management in Health Care
Spring. Prerequisites: HPM 501 and HPM 502 or permission of the instructor. Provides an overview of interpersonal dynamics, conflict resolution, and human resource management in health care organizations.
HPM 545 (2) Health Care Marketing
Spring. Prerequisites: HPM 501 and HPM 510 or permission of the instructor. Presents the basic concepts of marketing in the context of the delivery of health care services in the United States. Students undertake an applied marketing project on a group basis.
HPM 550 (4) Capstone: Operations Management
Spring, summer. Prerequisites: HPM 501, HPM 502, HPM 510, HPM 511, HPM 521, HPM 540, HPM 545, HPM 561 or 557. This course integrates various analytical approaches developed in prerequisite courses into practical decision making by analyzing the problems of day-to-day operations within the health care organizations and the specific tools used to address those problems. Operations involve the efficient management of an organizations people, material, methods, equipment, and environment. This course will develop the student’s ability to make decisions and to apply problem-solving skills to operate a modern day health care organization. The course will examine the manner in which services are provided in the health care sector with attention being focused towards customer service, production, performance and decision-making.
HPM 553 (3) Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy
Fall. Prerequisite: HPM 521 or permission of the instructor. Examines the role of pharmaceuticals in the delivery of health care and the economic principles and public policies that impact pharmaceutical markets. Includes topics related to drug pricing, competition, regulation, research and development, access to drugs, and substance abuse. Analyzes the strategies of various actors in pharmaceutical markets—branded and generic drug manufacturers, insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, physicians, and patients.
HPM 554 (2) Quality Improvement Methodologies for Health Care
Spring. Prerequisite: HPM 500 or HPM 501 or permission of the instructor. Presents a theoretical framework to facilitate the continuous improvement of quality in health care organizations. Introduces multiple approaches, including outcome measurement and case management. Emphasizes team development, analytical statistics, and process knowledge.
HPM 555 (2) Health Care Management in the Outpatient Setting
Fall, Summer. This course introduces students to management in the outpatient setting. Health care is transitioning into the lowest cost environment to provide care for patients. This shift from inpatient to outpatient care has created significant needs for strong managers who understand the complexity of providing care in this setting. By using a variety of case studies and practical experiences, students will be able to apply the concepts learned in a real-world setting. Students will learn advanced techniques with Microsoft Excel that will help prepare for future roles in health care management.
HPM 556 (3) Physician Performance
Spring. Prerequisite: HPM 500 or HPM 501 or permission of the instructor. Provides a systematic review of the major determinants of the performance of physicians, who by one estimate directly or indirectly influence 70 to 90 percent of all medical activities. Covers practice variation; medical appropriateness; patient and physician characteristics; uncertainty and medical decision-making; organizational characteristics and financial incentives; error and negligence; measuring MD performance via physician profiling, report cards, managed care; changing practice; utilization management; standards and professional society guidelines.
HPM 557 (2) Healthcare Administration Law
Spring. Introduces students to legal aspects of contemporary issues associated with the administration of health services organizations. Through readings, lectures and group interactions, the course will analyze the legal relationships between individual providers, payers, and regulatory entities and their impact on administration of these organizations.
HPM 559 (3) Negotiation and Conflict Management in the Health Care Setting
Spring. The purpose of this course is to understand the basic theory and processes of negotiation so that the student can negotiate successfully in a variety of organizational settings. Students will develop these skills by preparing for and simulating a variety of case study negotiations.
HPM 560 (3) Strategic Management
Fall, summer. Prerequisites: HPM 501, HPM 502, HPM 510, HPM 511, HPM 521, HPM 540, and HPM 545 and HPM 557 or 561. This course is intended as the integrative capstone course for management students completing their degree in Health Policy and Management. Examines the formulation and implementation of business strategies in health care organizations, models of strategic management, and the role of stakeholders in the strategic management process. Reviews specific analytical tools used in strategy formulation, choice, and implementation, with an emphasis on real-world health care applications.
HPM 561 (2) Public Health Law
Spring. Introduces students to public health law and provides an experience in legal thinking. The central themes of the course are how law provides the authority for governmental action to protect the public’s health, how law structures the relationships among public health governmental entities, and how law limits public health action. The course covers the nature of law as it applies to public health, the relationship between the legal powers of the states and the federal government, sources of individual rights, health ethics, and how these apply to specific areas of public health practice. Students are also exposed to the political and advocacy aspects of the law-making process as it relates to public health.
HPM 562 (3) Health Insurance Concepts
Fall. Introduces the basic structure, pricing, and management of financial risks by private health insurance plans, and the estimation of future expenditures for public health insurance programs. Examines the operation of health insurance plans from both the buyer and the insurer perspectives; how health plans employ actuarial estimates to project the cost of their benefit packages and determine the premiums they charge; and methodology as it pertains to the projection of costs in public health insurance programs.
HPM 564 (3) Health Outcomes
Spring. Prerequisites: HPM 501 and BIOS 500 (or the equivalent), or permission of the instructor. Focuses on the construction, analysis, and application of health outcome measures – including especially patient-reported outcomes (PROs) – to a range of health policy topics. These include evaluation of health system performance at the macro (national/international) level, assessment of health care provider performance, comparative effectiveness research, quality-of-care appraisal, and patient-provider decision-making at the bedside. Emphasis is on the basic measurement tools and analytical approaches being used now by outcomes researchers in academia, federal and state government policy shops, the drug and medical device industry, and management consulting firms that advise both government and industry.
HPM 565 (2) Health Care for the Indigent
Fall. Prerequisite: HPM 500 or HPM 501 or permission of instructor. Explores the problems of uninsured Americans in obtaining health care. Reviews the scope of the current problem and the role of existing programs, as well as future directions for health policy. Addresses practical issues in program administration, with an emphasis on Medicaid and other indigent care programs.
HPM 567 (3) Complex Problem Solving in Health Care Management and Policy
Fall. This class introduces essential techniques and strategies to effectively address unstructured, complex problems that managers and health policy analysts often encounter during their careers. Throughout the course, students will learn the key steps in problem-solving for unstructured problems; including defining the problem, disaggregating the problem into solvable questions using common tools like issue trees, identifying data needs and appropriate analytic approaches, choosing evaluation metrics, creating a workplans, identifying solutions and how to sell them. The course will conclude with a problem-solving competition among student groups applying the skills learn to solve a complex healthcare problem.
HPM 569 (3) Women’s Health Policy: A Lifecycle Approach
Spring. Instructs students in understanding the historical, social, political, legal, and economic factors and values that have influenced the development and implementation of health policy pertaining to women in the United States. Addresses current key policy and advocacy issues and examines varying views of women’s rights, roles, and responsibilities in the health care system.
HPM 570 (3) Comparative Health Care Systems
Spring. Prerequisite: HPM 500 or HPM 501 or permission of instructor. Explores and analyzes the current reform process in European and developed Asian health systems. Emphasizes normative policy as well as financial objectives, and the conflicting interests of key actors. Includes consideration of implications for health system reform in the United States.
HPM 573 (3) Access to Health Care: Measures, Determinants and Current Issues
Fall. Topics in the course include the measurement of access and examination indicators of access over time and across states and constituent groups. The determinants of access including age, race, ethnicity, income, insurance and health risk are presented. Current topics in access are integrated into the course. These include racial disparities, immigrant status, geographic variation, the uninsured and access under Medicaid.
HPM 575 (4) Capstone: Advanced Health Policy Analysis
Spring. Prerequisites: HPM 501, HPM 510, HPM 521, HPM 522, HPM 523, HPM 561 or 557 and HPM 576. This class will teach students how to conduct public health policy analyses that examine options to address emerging issues, conduct analysis of the options and communicate recommendations.
HPM 576 (3) Policy Analysis
Fall. Prerequisites: HPM 501, HPM 510, HPM 521, HPM 522, HPM 523, HPM 561 or 557. Students will learn how to use the tools of economics, statistics, and decision analysis to forecast the impact of proposed policies. The class will cover the formal and informal roles of policy analysis in government decision-making, study design, and how to judge the accuracy of estimates of program effects, and how to clearly and succinctly describe methods and results for non-technical audiences. Students critique two policy analyses and perform two original analyses of their own. Previous analyses have predicted the impact of contraceptive coverage on employers’ health care costs, increasing cigarette taxes on state revenue, and mandatory nurse staffing levels on patient outcomes.
HPM 577 (2) The Mental Health/Medical Interface in the United States
Spring. The seminar explores the complex and dynamic relationship between general health and mental health in the United States. Gaps in parity and proposal for achieving parity are discussed in the context health reform.
HPM 581 (2) Research Seminar I
Fall. The seminar introduces the health services research process, research design issues, ethical problems faced by researchers, and the development of the MSPH thesis. Enrollment is limited to students admitted to the MSPH in health services research.
HPM 583 (2) Research Seminar III
Fall. Prerequisite: HPM 581, 730. The seminar provides HPM MSPH students with the guidance necessary for developing a quantitatively-based thesis using large secondary data sets. It begins with development of a researchable health policy question and the selection of appropriate databases and operational definitions. Enrollment is limited to students admitted to the MSPH in health services research.
HPM 585 (3) Quantitative Methods I
Fall. The course is an introduction to SAS software with a focus on organizing and merging large databases for purposes applying statistical analysis. The course complements the introduction to SAS in the BIOS 500 lab. Enrollment is limited to students in the HPM MSPH program.
HPM 586 (3) Quantitative Methods II
Spring. Prerequisite: HPM 585 and BIOS 500. This course introduces student the STATA software with a focus on using the software for statistical analysis for data which has been organized using the SAS software. The course builds on the concepts intro in BIOS 500 and concludes with regression analysis. Enrollment is limited to students admitted to the HPM MSPH or PhD program or permission of the instructor is required.
HPM 587 (1) Advanced Research Methods
Fall. Prerequisite: HPM 730, 586. The course provides the opportunity for students to explore in depth the major research methods used in health services research. The emphasis is on employing methods which are consistent with the limitations of study data and study assumptions. Enrollment is limited to students admitted to the MSPH in health services research or the HPM doctoral program.
HPM 590 (VC) Seminar: Selected Topics in Health Services Management
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
HPM 591 (VC) Seminar: Selected Topics in Health Policy
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
HPM 592 (2) Case Studies in Public Mental Health
This course is the core course for the Certificate in Mental Health. Offered each spring, any current first year student enrolled in the MPH or MSPH program at Rollins that plans to pursue the Certificate in Mental Health must enroll in HPM 592. Participating certificate students will be identified based on their enrollment in this course.
HPM 595R (0) Applied Practice Experience
An Applied Practice Experience (APE) is a unique opportunity that enables students to apply practical skills and knowledge learned through coursework to a professional public health setting that complements the student’s interests and career goals. The APE must be supervised by a Field Supervisor and requires approval from an APE Advisor designated by the student’s academic department at Rollins. Registration for the course is required.
HPM 598R (VC) Special Study Project
Presentation of a paper that defines a problem in public health, reviews the literature on this subject, details the methodologies for data collection and analysis, describes findings and conclusions, and discusses implications for public health.
HPM 599R (VC) Thesis
Preparation of a monograph based on original research applicable to public health. Should be publishable or have potential public health impact.
HPM 720R (4) Doctoral Seminar in Health Policy
The purpose of this year-long seminar is to acquaint students with the major areas of health policy research, and active areas of research in health policy and economics. The course will also address the role of researchers in the research process, including how to execute peer review.
HPM 730 (4) Theory-Based Research Design Seminar II
Spring. This course guides students through the process of writing a health services research proposal that is grounded in theory. The coursework emphasizes the development of a conceptual framework tailored to a specific research topic by drawing on existing theory, conceptual frameworks, and scientific literature. Other course topics include conducting literature searches and critically reviewing relevant literature; defining and measuring theoretical constructs; developing testable hypotheses; identifying potential omitted variable bias; and executing an effective research presentation.
HPM 740 (4) Doctoral Seminar in Health Economics
This reading course is designed to acquaint students with emerging literature in health economics with particular focus on insurance, delivery systems, provider behavior, and public programs. Students will learn to evaluate theoretical and empirical models employed in contemporary research and identify health economics research questions to which these might be employed.
HPM 750 (2) How Health Policymakers Think About Making Policy: Insights from Political Science and Organizational Behavior
Fall. Prerequisites: Doctoral standing or permission of the instructor. The course focuses on key concepts and factors that influence real-world health policymaking. Following an initial session on the concepts of governance and stewardship, the course examines key issues in the behavior of public sector organizations and the complexities of implementing public sector policy. The course then examines how policy implementation issues influence different policy paradigms in public health, concluding with a discussion of recent writings about social determinants of health.
HPM 760 (4) Doctoral Seminar in Health Services Research
This class is designed to acquaint students with the major tools of health services research. The course will also highlight existing and emerging issues in health services research, policy, and management. Discussions of options for addressing the issues and a review of the empirical literature evaluating their impact are examined.