Syllabus

Master of Healthcare Administration

HCA 760 — Healthcare Finance and Revenue Cycle Strategy – Spring B 2024

Credits - 3

Description

This course explores the fundamentals of finance and economics in a health care system at both the local system and national levels. Healthcare leadership increasingly depends upon deep and strategic understanding of the complex payor systems that provide revenue to their organizations. Students will gain expertise crafting strategic approaches to managing market supply and demand, the economics of care and managed care, budgeting, accounting, and fiscal reporting. 

Materials

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

Program Outcome addressed by this course:

• Understand the complex system of legal and regulatory compliance that governs the healthcare system

Course Outcomes:

This course is intended to provide an understanding of the healthcare operating model as well as fundamental budget and financial management skills required for successful leadership in health informatics.

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Summarize the competitive model and the role of the government in healthcare, including what drives supply and demand
• Describe the types and sources of revenues and expenses in health care as well as various reimbursement models
• Describe the processes in the healthcare revenue cycle and the impact of collections on fiscal viability
• Interpret and analyze basic financial management reports for a health care organization
• Apply variance analysis techniques including benchmarking to budget and actual reports, financial statements, and ratio calculations
• Describe methods for classifying, allocating, and assembling costs as well as the importance of materials management
• Evaluate operational and capital budgets for a health care facility including sources of capital funding and costs

Assignments

Please note that all times in the syllabus and in Brightspace refer to Eastern Time. The discussion board and assignment links for each week will open at the start of the week for submissions.

Discussion Board Posts: These assignments will assess your ability to clearly and accurately apply concepts from your readings and from your own experiences. Each week you are expected to submit an initial post and comment on at least 2 other students’ posts. You need to follow APA guidelines for citing any sources you may reference in either your initial post or your response to others. Refer to the Discussion Rubric and discussion question for submission guidelines.

Initial post: You should submit your initial post by 11:59 p.m. Sunday. Your initial post should be approximately 500 words.

Response to others: You should comment on at least 2 other students’ posts by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. Your comments to others should be thorough, thoughtful, and they should offer some new content. Do not merely respond with “I agree” or “I disagree.” Engage directly with the ideas of your classmates and briefly mention which part of the post you are responding to.

Textbook Assignments —  There will be a series of textbook assignments to help you consolidate that week’s concepts. Refer to the assignment instructions and associated rubric for submission guidelines.

Key Assignments: 

Week 1 Assignment
Research a topic on Healthcare Economics and write a paper on the topic.
Please submit a 5-page, APA formatted, paper with 3 to 5 references.
The topics of the paper could include supply and demand in the healthcare industry, healthcare rationing, concept of moral hazard in healthcare, economies of scale and consolidation in the healthcare industry, or another topic of your choice with approval of the instructor.

Week 2 Assignment
Research a topic on the current structure of the healthcare market and write a paper on the topic.
Please submit a 5-page, APA formatted, paper with 3 to 5 references.
The topics of the paper could include payer/payor systems in the US healthcare industry, role of government in the healthcare system, future of the healthcare system and impact on patient care, or another topic of your choice with approval of the instructor.

Week 7 Assignment – Final Project

Your final project will include:

An updated executive summary incorporating any instructor feedback you received in week four with two new sections added:
Budget Summary – A short summary that highlights the key aspects of the completed budget.
Budget Monitoring and Control – A description of how you will monitor and control your capital budget. This section should be 1-2 paragraphs explaining how often the budget should be reviewed and how you will know the budget is on track.
A budget completed in Excel – an example budget template is provided below for reference (or feel free to develop your own). Start by identifying key cost areas for the project then research costs and document any assumptions.

Make sure to reference the sources you use in your research. 

Course Reflection — In week 8 you will reflect on your learning in this course in a 300-5oo word response to questions posed. Refer to the assignment instructions and Final Reflection Rubric for submission guidelines.

All assignments use scoring rubrics to assess student performance. Thoroughly review the rubric and assignment instructions for guidance on what’s required for each assignment.

Grading Policy

Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:

Grade Breakdown

Assessment Item	Percent of Total Grade
Discussion Posts (8)	20%
Textbook Assignments (5)	30%
Topic Proposal for Informatics Budget Project	5%
Executive Summary for Informatics Budget Project	10%
Informatics Budget Project (Includes Executive Summary and Budget in Excel)	30%
Reflection	5%
Total	100%

Grade Scale

Grade	Points Grade	Point Average (GPA)
A	94 – 100%	4.00
A-	90 – 93%	3.75
B+	87 – 89%	3.50
B	84 – 86%	3.00
B-	80 – 83%	2.75
C+	77 – 79%	2.50
C	74 – 76%	2.00
C-	70 – 73%	1.75
D	64 – 69%	1.00
F	00 – 63%	0.00