Economics and Decision Making in Health Care

Write a letter to an official in your state or local government. (Choose the individual in the level of government that will best address your issue). The purpose of this letter is to advocate for action with regards to your chosen health care environment issue.

Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.
As health care leaders, it is important to understand strategies for advocating and lobbying elected officials. This can lead to the development of policies or laws that can help drive improved equity and outcomes for all participants in the health care environment as well as a more sustainable financial future.
Background and Context
As a master’s-level health care practitioner, you may be expected to implement plans to ensure that initiatives designed to take advantage of economic opportunities for the organization are rolled out successfully and can be sustained over multiple years. Additionally, it is important to be able to envision how an initiative could be implemented in different contexts and for different purposes to ensure the investment remains a viable and positive asset to your organization or care setting.
As a master’s-level practitioner, you will often be challenged to influence the health care environment in a variety of ways. This influence can occur on a micro-level (implementing change on your unit, institution, community, or local organizations) or at a macro level (implementing change via state or federal regulations and policy). One way you can influence the health care environment is by lobbying an elected official at the local, state, or national level to adopt policies or legislation that would support positive economic and health outcomes for patients, practitioners, and organizations within the health care environment.

Develop a letter to an official in your state or local government (choose the individual in the level of government that will best address your issue). The purpose of this letter is to advocate for action with regards to your chosen health care environment issue. Remember, when writing the letter, you must use your personal address and telephone number unless you are exclusively representing a group or your organization.
Be sure to address each main point. Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide, including performance-level descriptions for each criterion, to ensure you understand the work you will be asked to complete and how it will be assessed. In addition, note the requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.
Overall, your assessment submission will be assessed on the following criteria:
• Summarize the health care economic issue that you are addressing.
o Keep this brief but try to include details about how the issue is currently impacting the elected officials’ constituents.
• Explain the positive outcomes that will occur if the issue is addressed and the negative outcomes that will occur if the issue is not addressed.
o Tailor this messaging to focus on the impacts in the communities and organizations that are relevant to the elected official you are writing to.
• Summarize key information from scholarly sources to support the importance of addressing the issue; the issue’s overall impact on health care at the institutional, local, state, and national levels; and proposed changes or actions to address the issue.
o Cite at least five current, scholarly sources that support your argument and help provide the elected official (who may not have a detailed knowledge of the health care environment) with an understanding of the issues, changes, or actions that you are proposing to drive improved outcomes.
o Identify the impact your issue has on health care institutions and health care providers at the local community, state, and national levels.
o Make sure to include information from both a health care and an economic perspective. An elected official may be more responsive to one perspective than another.
o Incorporate ethical, cultural, and diversity principles when picking resources and making recommendations for change in your assessment.
• Explain how personal, professional, and organizational experiences have informed the resource planning and risk analysis for working toward addressing the economic issue.
o Think about how your experiences (the experiences can be personal, professional, or from your team’s perspective or experience) affect how you have planned for the resources needed to implement your desired changes or actions. How did this impact your approach to conducting a risk analysis on the project?
• Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly communication standards.
o Remember to conclude your letter with a summary of your position on the issue and a compelling reason that the elected official should act in your favor and support your issue or initiative.

• Competency 1: Analyze the effects of financial and economic factors (such as cost-benefit, supply and demand, return on investment, and risks) in a health care system on patient care, services offered, and organizational structures and operation.
o Summarize the health care economic issue that you are addressing.
• Competency 2: Develop ethical and culturally equitable solutions to economic problems within a health care organization in an effort to improve the quality of care and services offered.
o Explain the positive outcomes that will occur if the issue is addressed and negative outcomes that will occur if the issue is not addressed.
• Competency 3: Justify the qualitative and quantitative information used to guide economic decision making to stakeholders and colleagues.
o Summarize key information from scholarly sources to support the importance of addressing the issue; the issue’s overall impact on health care at the institutional, local, state, and national levels; and proposed changes or actions to address the issue.
• Competency 4: Develop ethical and culturally equitable economic strategies to address dynamic environmental forces and ensure the future security of an organization’s resources and its ability to provide quality care.
o Explain how personal, professional, and organizational experiences have informed the resource planning and risk analysis for working toward addressing the economic issue.
• Competency 5: Produce clear, coherent, and professional written work, in accordance with Capella writing standards.
o Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards

Develop a 10-slide business PowerPoint for the economic issue you have been working with as your topic in the previous assessment. You will then present this PowerPoint using Kaltura and submit the video.

this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.
As a master’s-level health care practitioner, you are expected to consider a number of factors when supporting change by analyzing the feasibility of a new initiative or identifying an issue within your organization. For example, you must take into consideration the various types of risk (such as patient safety, physical plant, financial, or reputation), as well as the present and future value of the service line or economic opportunity you are invested in. Additionally, you must also balance your ethical and moral responsibility to provide quality care to patients and populations while protecting your organization’s assets and economic viability in the near and long terms.
Background and Context
As a master’s-level health care practitioner, you are expected to consider a number of factors when supporting change by analyzing the feasibility of a new initiative or identifying an issue within your organization. For example, you must take into consideration the various types of risk (such as patient safety, physical plant, financial, or reputation), as well as the present and future value of the service line or economic opportunity you are invested in. Additionally, you must also balance your ethical and moral responsibility to provide quality care to patients and populations while protecting your organization’s assets and economic viability in the near and long terms.
Instructions
For this assessment, you will develop a 10-slide business PowerPoint for the economic issue you have been working with as your topic in the previous assessment. You will then present this PowerPoint using Kaltura and submit the video.
This presentation asks you to examine the feasibility and cost-benefit considerations of implementing a proposed solution for your chosen issue, as well as analyze ways to mitigate risks.
Be sure to address each main point. Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide, including performance-level descriptions for each criterion, to ensure you understand the work you will be asked to complete and how it will be assessed. In addition, note the requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.
You may also wish to consult the Guidelines for Effective PowerPoint Presentations [PPTX] if you need additional guidance as you are assembling your presentation.
Overall, your assessment submission will be assessed on the following criteria:
• Summarize the problem and the potential impact the health care economic issue has on you, your colleagues, your organization, and the community at large.
o This is an opportunity to tell your story and what the initiative means to you as a health care practitioner. Remember, this is a presentation. So, you want to be engaging and persuasive in order to build support for what you will be proposing to do later in the presentation.
• Explain the feasibility and cost-benefit considerations of your health care economic issue, as well as three ways to mitigate risks to the financial security of your organization or health care setting.
o Make sure to present at least an overview of the data and numbers you are basing your cost-benefit analysis on.
o Touch upon the ways in which potential risks could pose a threat to the financial security of your organization or care setting while you are addressing the ways to mitigate risk.
o Support your explanation with evidence-based research or scholarly sources.
• Describe the changes or solution that you propose be implemented in order to address the economic issue.
o Include the potential benefits of implementation to your organization, your colleagues, or the community at large.
o Support your initiative with evidence-based research or scholarly sources.
• Explain how your proposed solution is culturally sensitive, ethical, and equitable within the context of the community and health care setting it will be implemented.
o Make sure that your changes or solution are not unfairly burdening or disadvantaging any specific groups.
o Double check that your changes or solution do not pose any ethical issues and are not culturally insensitive.
o Ensure that both access and cost are equitable across all groups in the community that the proposed solution will be affecting.
• Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly communication standards.
If you need more guidance on recording a video with Kaltura, refer to the audio and video information in Using Kaltura.

• Length of Presentation: The PowerPoint presentation should be 10 slides in length and presented orally using Kaltura to record and share the video. The video itself should not exceed 10 minutes.
• Number of Resources: Include at least five scholarly sources to support your work and meet scholarly expectations for supporting evidence. Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references in the PowerPoint.
• Technology Used: Record yourself presenting your PowerPoint using Kaltura, and submit it for review. You must also submit the PowerPoint file for review.
Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center’s Writing Support page.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
• Competency 1: Analyze the effects of financial and economic factors (such as cost-benefit, supply and demand, return on investment, and risks) in a health care system on patient care, services offered, and organizational structures and operation.
o Summarize the problem and the potential impact the health care economic issue has on you, your colleagues, your organization, and the community at large.
• Competency 2: Develop ethical and culturally equitable solutions to economic problems within a health care organization in an effort to improve the quality of care and services offered.
o Explain how your proposed solution is culturally sensitive, ethical, and equitable within the context of the community and health care setting it will be implemented.
• Competency 4: Develop ethical and culturally equitable economic strategies to address dynamic environmental forces and ensure the future security of an organization’s resources and its ability to provide quality care.
o Explain the feasibility and cost-benefit considerations of your health care economic issue, as well as three ways to mitigate risks to the financial security of your organization or health care setting.
o Describe the changes or solution that you propose be implemented in order to address the economic issue.
• Competency 5: Produce clear, coherent, and professional written work, in accordance with Capella writing standards.
o Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly communication standards.