HA604 Park University Healthcare Economics Concepts and Applications Paper
Subject
Health Medical
Course
HA604
School
Park University
Question Description
Introduction
There are a number of reasons why healthcare administrators need a solid understanding of concepts and applications associated with healthcare economics. First, understanding economics gives managers and leaders the ability to focus on key issues impacting their firm. As you know, there are many issues that impact financial and operational processes and outcomes; far too many to tackle at one time. Economics can assist management in prioritizing the issues that need to be addressed. Second, it permits managers the opportunity to formulate tactical and even longer term strategies to realize goals while effectively leveraging our scarce resources. Third, economics provides a framework from which to more fully appreciate how costs influence management decision-making. A cost that many organizations are required to incur is the availability of healthcare insurance for their employees. For those firms and industries that rely on third-party payers as a significant portion of their payer mix, it vital that managers and leader remain keenly aware of legislative actions, trends, problems associated with the insurance and managed care industries. In business, we, as healthcare leaders and managers, are constantly faced with uncertainty. This uncertainly can have a significant impact on the decision-making process. We need to develop a comfort level when working with imprecise estimates, exploring alternatives, and managing risk that is inherent in industry.
In order to support your understanding of healthcare economics and the financing system, you will be expected to complete the following end-of-chapter problems and mini-ca