"Health economics is concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value, and behavior in the production and consumption of health and healthcare."
The study of health care systems and the impact of public policies on health outcomes.
Introduction to Health Economics: This includes an overview of health economics, its history, and the main concepts in the field, such as supply and demand, efficiency, equity, and market failure.
Health Care Systems: This covers the different types of health care systems, including single-payer, private insurance, and mixed systems, and how they affect health outcomes and expenditures.
Health Financing: This involves examining the sources of funding for health care, such as government budgets, insurance premiums, out-of-pocket payments, and grants, and their impact on access, quality, and affordability.
Health Insurance: This explores the features of different types of health insurance, such as fee-for-service, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and how they affect health care utilization and spending.
Health Technology Assessment: This evaluates the effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness of health technologies, such as drugs, medical devices, and procedures, and how they are adopted and reimbursed in health care systems.
Health Care Workforce: This covers the roles and functions of different health care providers, such as physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals, and their impact on patient outcomes and costs.
Health Policy Analysis: This involves analyzing the economic, social, and political factors that shape health care policies, such as regulatory frameworks, reimbursement mechanisms, and payment incentives.
Economic Evaluation: This assesses the cost and benefits of health care interventions, such as preventive measures, screening tests, and treatment options, and how they relate to health outcomes and resource allocation decisions.
Health Inequalities: This examines the factors that determine health outcomes and disparities across different socioeconomic and demographic groups, and how they can be addressed through policy interventions.
Health System Performance: This measures the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of health care systems, and how they can be improved through performance indicators, benchmarking, and quality improvement initiatives.
Cost Effectiveness Analysis: This is a technique used to evaluate the costs and benefits of different healthcare interventions. It compares the costs and effectiveness of different treatments, such as drugs or surgeries.
Health Technology Assessment: This is a systematic evaluation of the safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare technologies, such as drugs or medical devices.
Healthcare Financing and Markets: This area studies how healthcare is financed and delivered in different countries, and how different financing mechanisms and market structures affect the cost and quality of care.
Healthcare Policy and Regulation: This area studies the role of government policies and regulations in shaping the healthcare system, such as the impact of health insurance regulation or healthcare workforce policies.
Behavioral Economics: This area looks at how people make decisions related to their health, including factors such as pricing, incentives, and risk perception.
Econometrics and Statistical Analysis: This area involves using statistical methods to analyze healthcare data, such as healthcare utilization or spending trends over time.
Economic Evaluation of Health Interventions: This area looks at the cost and benefits of healthcare interventions from a broader perspective, considering the impact on productivity, quality of life, and other social benefits.
"Health economics helps in determining how to improve health outcomes and lifestyle patterns through interactions between individuals, healthcare providers, and clinical settings."
"Health economists study health-affecting behaviors such as smoking, diabetes, and obesity."
"One of the biggest difficulties regarding healthcare economics is that it does not follow normal rules for economics."
"Price and Quality are often hidden by the third-party payer system of insurance companies and employers."
"QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Years) is one of the most commonly used measurements for treatments, but it is very difficult to measure and relies upon assumptions that are often unreasonable."
"In healthcare, the third-party agent is the patient's health insurer, who is financially responsible for the healthcare goods and services consumed by the insured patient."
"A seminal 1963 article by Kenneth Arrow is often credited with giving rise to health economics as a discipline."
"Factors that distinguish health economics from other areas include extensive government intervention, intractable uncertainty in several dimensions, asymmetric information, barriers to entry, externality, and the presence of a third-party agent."
"Health economists evaluate multiple types of financial information: costs, charges, and expenditures."
"Uncertainty is intrinsic to health, both in patient outcomes and financial concerns."
"The knowledge gap that exists between a physician and a patient creates a situation of distinct advantage for the physician, which is called asymmetric information."
"Externalities arise frequently when considering health and health care, notably in the context of the health impacts as with infectious disease or opioid abuse."
"Making an effort to avoid catching the common cold affects people other than the decision maker."
"Finding sustainable, humane, and effective solutions to the opioid epidemic."
"Health economics helps in determining how to improve health outcomes and lifestyle patterns through interactions between individuals, healthcare providers, and clinical settings."
"Health economists study health-affecting behaviors such as smoking, diabetes, and obesity."
"Price and Quality are often hidden by the third-party payer system of insurance companies and employers."
"Factors that distinguish health economics from other areas include extensive government intervention."
"Factors that distinguish health economics from other areas include extensive government intervention, intractable uncertainty in several dimensions, asymmetric information, barriers to entry, externality, and the presence of a third-party agent."