Health Economics
Faculty Offering
Swarna Parameswaran
Assistant Professor, General Management & Public Policy
- swarna@gim.ac.in
- + 91 9013368272
Programme / Term
PGDM-HCM
No. of sessions
24 sessions
Course description
The healthcare sector constantly faces the challenge of meeting the increasing needs of a growing population in the backdrop of competing interventions and multiple players. The availability of limited resources further constrains managerial decision-making. This course introduces the key concepts of health economics and their applications for issues faced when allocating scarce resources. By the end of the course, healthcare management students will be equipped with the analytical methods to address resource allocation problems in the healthcare sector so that their choices maximize the benefits of and welfare from various health interventions and outcomes.
Programme / Term
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of different economic concepts and applications in healthcare.
- Students will analyze different types of healthcare markets and market failures.
- Interpret various economic factors in managerial decision-making.
- Students will apply different economic evaluation techniques to examine business problems in healthcare.
- Students will evaluate patterns in healthcare management outcomes using economic concepts.
- Students will analyze healthcare outcomes in the context of scarce economic resources.
1. Core Courses
a. Synchronous (topics and sub-topics to be covered in class) –
- Introduction to health economics- fundamental concepts and applications
- Demand and supply analysis- laws and determinants of demand and supply, Grossman model, supply induced demand, physicians and hospitals as healthcare providers, market equilibrium, price elasticities
- Applications of consumer behaviour in healthcare management- utility maximization, budget constraints, and income vs substitution effects
- Production and costs in healthcare- economies of scale and scope, economic efficiency- technical and allocative, costs of healthcare and its applications
- Healthcare markets and their structures, pricing strategies, market failures and externalities
- Economic evaluation techniques and their applications- CEA, CMA, and CBA
- Macroeconomic overview of the healthcare sector- share in GDP, national and global trends in health indicators, investments, role of FDI, and globalization, monetary and fiscal policy overview
b. Asynchronous (topics and subtopics for self-study through provided learning resources and
MOOCs) –
Methodology
Lectures, classroom activities, student-driven discussions, and exercises
Group Projects and Journal
Group projects are an integral part of learning. Students are expected to form into groups of 4/5 to work on their projects. The projects would be due a week from the close of the term. Proposals are due by the 6th class. Students are expected to take a project in consultation with the instructor. The proposals must include a statement of the problem they seek to address, breaking down the same in to questions and an indication of how they would address the same. They should pose the questions sharply, and if the working involves data they must indicate the data sources as well.
Students would maintain a journal in which they would record questions that they raised and the learnings, on a session by session basis. The same would be submitted for evaluation.
For whom
- Students seeking a deep understanding of the new opportunities in PPPs and private capital in infrastructure, and willing to work hard would find the course engaging and useful.
- Consultants in government and infrastructure verticals, developers, regulators, and senior (credit) staff of BSFIs seeking to finance infrastructure projects, would find the course very useful saving them many years of learning on the job. Prerequisites for the course would be basics of microeconomics, capital finance, and financial markets.
- Students should have a sound knowledge of basic concepts in financing, microeconomics, and organizational management. This course would not suit the causal attendee.
Evaluation
Title
Percentage
Class Participation
10%
Quiz
15%
Mid-term examination
20%
Group assignment
15%
End-term examination
40%
TOTAL
100%
Section wise outline
Session Seq /Date & Time
Topic
Cases/Readings
1
Introduction to health economics- basic concepts, applications in healthcare
Session readings
2-3
Demand for healthcare- law of demand, determinants of demand, Grossman demand model and its applications
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge.
4-5
Supply of healthcare- law of supply, determinants of supply, supply-induced demand, physicians and hospitals as healthcare providers
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge.
6
Market equilibrium and effects of government intervention- price control measures
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge.
7-8
Applications of consumer behaviour in healthcare management- utility maximization, budget constraints, and income vs substitution effects
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge.
9-10
Measuring price sensitivities- Elasticities of demand and supply and their applications
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge.
11-12
Production in healthcare- returns to scale, economies of scale and scope, economic efficiency- technical and allocative efficiency
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge.
13-14
Costs in healthcare
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition.
15-17
Healthcare markets and their structures- perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge.
18
Pricing strategies- price discrimination
Session readings
19
Externalities, public goods and market failure- the role of government intervention and regulation
Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge.
20-22
Economic evaluation techniques and their applications- cost-minimization, cost-benefit, and cost-effectiveness
Drummond M.F, Sculpher, M.J., Torrance, G.W, O'Brien B.J. and Stoddart, G.L. (2015). Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes.
23-24
Macroeconomic overview of the healthcare sector- healthcare in GDP, trends in national and global healthcare outcomes, healthcare expenditures, investments (NPV), and the role of FDI, and globalization in the healthcare sector, overview of monetary and fiscal policies
Session readings
23 and 24
Non-linear regression models & Qualitative response regression models
Reference Books
- Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care. Pearson International Edition Seventh Edition. Routledge. ISBN-10: 1292020512 or ISBN-13: 978-1292020518
- Drummond M.F, Sculpher, M.J., Torrance, G.W, O’Brien B.J. and Stoddart, G.L. (2015). Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes. Fourth Edition, Oxford University Press ISBN: 9780199665884
- Feldstein, P.J. (2012) Health Care Economics, 7th Edition, Cengage Learning Publishers Inc. ISBN-10: 1111313261 | ISBN-13: 9781111313265
Institutions where the course is offered
GIM