Consumerism - The Customer is Always Right? The Patient’s Role in Health Care and Health Policy

HPM 582 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Consumerism in health care, where patients consider both quality and price when making health care purchasing decisions, has long been proffered as a pathway to greater value in the US health care system.  Yet some argue that viewing patients as consumers in the health care system is harmful, leading to inefficient resource use, placing burden on patients, and delivery of lower quality care. Does consumerism achieve its desired outcomes? Can consumer-focused policy interventions inside and outside of the health care system achieve better outcomes and higher value in the US health care system? 

In this course, students will learn the economic concepts underlying consumerism in the US health care system and the results from policy and market-based interventions to increase forms of consumerism in health insurance choice, health care delivery, and health behaviors. In a final project, students will apply these lessons to analyze a current consumer-focused health policy or market-based initiative that aims to harness consumerism to improve value or health outcomes.