2.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This course covers the application of economic theory to health care markets and decision-making. It explores the economic analysis of the health care industry across the continuum of care, including the role of non-profit and for-profit providers, the nature of competition, the effects of regulation and antitrust activity on hospitals, the effects of alternatives to hospital care and shifting of services between inpatient and outpatient settings and its effect on health care costs and quality. The course builds on analytical tools of economics applied to issues in health care to explore the use of economic incentives to influence health behavior, the role of asymmetric information and agency in health care, the role of decision-making biases as they apply to health care, the incentive implications of government as payer and regulator, issues surrounding equity and ethics, the role of health insurance in the economics of pricing, and the theory of the firm as it applies to physicians, hospitals, and systems.