At the end of the module, students should be able to:
Knowledge
- Explain how and why health and healthcare are like and unlike other economic goods or commodities;
- Describe the role of supply and demand in a market economy in general and the nature of medical care markets, specifically;
- Explain the major aspects of health insurance and its role in healthcare;
- Understand the concepts and goals underlying (early) Health Technology Assessment and health economic evaluation;
- Understand and apply methods for handling of uncertainty in a health economic evaluation;
- Understand the nature and relevance of modeling in health economic evaluation;
- Describe the nature and roles of financial and management accounting taking into account heath care organizations;
- Understand how to measure the financial position and performance of a health care organization;
- Learn how to set-up the (organizational) structure of a health care program;
Skills
- Define the mechanisms in the provision of healthcare especially health financing;
- Apply a break-even analysis to inform business economic decision-making;
- Perform a critical appraisal of an economic evaluation;
- Design a health economic evaluation study consisting of a well-defined research question, a comprehensive description of the competing alternatives, the perspective and time horizon, including a costing study and an effectiveness study for the competing alternatives defining all relevant costs and health effects;
- Design and perform a health economic evaluation by integrating the analyses above into a cost-effectiveness ratio dealing with uncertainty and interpreting the results in terms of health care decision making;
- Recognize the importance of cash flows statement and be able to analyze and interpret financial statements;
- Realize (and apply) different cost allocation methods and determine service costs, and their effects on financial statements;
- Confer the changes in the business world and the management techniques settled to maintain businesses competitiveness;
- Deal with the way in which businesses convert their objectives and long-term plans into workable short-term plans;
- Clarify the processes related to planning, control and budgeting, and interpret differences between plan and actual to assess business efficiency;
- Appreciate and manage the complexity of developing and funding a health care program;
- Apply knowledge gained from the taught part of the module in writing a business case;
Attitude
- Ease into studying material regularly and consistently;
- Handle workflow and interpersonal relationships professionally;
- Further increased independence (in particular in supporting elements of health economic evaluations);
- Further increased critical attitude (in particular when assessing design and outcomes of reported health economic evaluations);
- Be aware of the changes in the business world and the management techniques settled to maintain businesses competitiveness;
- Enhance ability to work as a member of a large group/team including taking responsibility for independent contribution and cooperating to reach group aims; and,
- Recognize the difference between presentation for/before a scientific/academic audience and a business audience and striking a balance between the two in the health sector.
|
 |
|
“The number of health care technologies and services to care and cure ill-health are exponentially increasing in the last decade, due to, among others, rapid development in digital health services. To name a few, mobile phone applications, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality are increasingly used to empower patients, but also to provide health care at the right place and at the right moment. Using these new technologies and services however comes at a cost which puts pressure on the health care budget.
To prevent health care costs to exceed the set budget, local governments, health insurers and health care providers strive to come up with appropriate and cost-effective services for society. The goal of this module is to provide students with theoretical training in the economics of health and healthcare, health economic evaluation and financial management as well as soft skills in program development and marketing. Combined with the creative and critical thinking of students, innovative processes and “products” for specific patient group will be developed in the project of this module.
The project is articulated around real-world challenges, introduced by stakeholders from the field, for which students have to design a solutions. During the project, the students have to choose one challenge and design a suitable solution for the stakeholder. The solution will take the form of a fictive social enterprise (start-up).
To support students in their project work, they will be armed with theoretical skills that will allow them to appreciate the causes and consequences of the growing and changing demand for health care including the (macro) socio-economic and (meso) financial aspects of care processes and products. Key concepts that will be covered include the supply (of health care) and (derived) demand (for health care) and the (health care) market. In addition, the concepts of efficiency and cost-effectiveness will be addressed given the challenge of balancing scarce resources with the wants and needs of the population. During the project, the stakeholders introducing the challenge will be available to answer the students’ question concerning the suitability of their designed solution.
Besides the fundamentals of (health) economics, students will likewise be afforded important, principal training in management with a focus on financial and management accounting. The meso (i.e. organizational) level impact of and actions on macro (i.e. health care system) developments will be made clear with the understanding of the indicators of high-performing (business) organizations and the processes that are necessary toward strategically managing challenges and opportunities. Key topics such as planning and control, budgeting and purchasing will be treated both generally and specific to health care.
|
|
|