The Business of Health Care Specialization

Name: The Business of Health Care
Rating: 4.625392008093069 (1977 reviews)

Advance your career in health care management.

Develop business skills and understand the American health care system to improve cost and quality.

Instructors: Sarah Rottenberg

Access provided by Mojatu Foundation

28,507 already enrolled

4 course series

Get in-depth knowledge of a subject

from 1,977 reviews of courses in this program

Beginner level

No prior experience required

4 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

4 course series

Get in-depth knowledge of a subject

from 1,977 reviews of courses in this program

Beginner level

No prior experience required

4 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

This Specialization was designed to help you keep pace with the rapidly changing world of health and health care. Through partnership with Wharton and Penn Medicine, you’ll learn from experts in business acumen, health care management, and health care policy to develop the skills you’ll need to successfully navigate the quickly evolving landscape of this fast-growing field.* By the end of this specialization, you will have a strong foundational understanding of the American health care system, along with the basic financial and management skills to make better, well-informed decisions that improve the cost and quality of the health care you or your enterprise provides.

*The employment of medical and health services managers is projected to grow 17% from 2014 to 2024, significantly faster than the average for all occupations.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor. “Occupational Outlook handbook 2016-17 Edition. Medical and Health Services Managers.”

Applied Learning Project

Learners will have the opportunity to see the application of key concepts covered in the Specialization to real-world health care challenges using case studies and financial statements from health care initiatives. By the end of the Specialization, learners will be able to apply management and financial skills to their own practice by maximizing cost and efficiency of insurance and healthcare operations.

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Specialization - 4 course series

*The employment of medical and health services managers is projected to grow 17% from 2014 to 2024, significantly faster than the average for all occupations.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor. “Occupational Outlook handbook 2016-17 Edition. Medical and Health Services Managers.”

Applied Learning Project

Financial Acumen for Non-Financial Managers

Course 1, 10 hours

What you'll learn

In this course, you’ll explore how financial statement data and non-financial metrics can be linked to financial performance. Professors Rick Lambert and Chris Ittner of the Wharton School have designed this course to help you gain a practical understanding of how data is used to assess what drives financial performance and forecast future financial scenarios. You’ll learn more about the frameworks of financial reporting, income statements, and cash reporting, and apply different approaches to analyzing financial performance using real-life examples to see the concepts in action. By the end of this course, you’ll have honed your skills in understanding how financial data and non-financial data interact to forecast events and be able to determine the best financial strategy for your organization.

The Economics of Health Care Delivery

Course 2, 8 hours

What you'll learn

In this course, you’ll learn about the key components of health care, and the economics behind their principles and pricing strategies. Professors Ezekiel Emanuel of Penn Medicine and Guy David of the Wharton School have designed this course to help you understand the complex structure of the health care system and health insurance. Through study and analysis of providers and insurance through an economic lens, you’ll learn how basic economic principles apply to both principles and payment methods. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to identify different types of health care providers and understand the dynamic between the providers and patient so you can employ best practices and maximize profit for your health care organization.

Management Fundamentals

Course 3, 8 hours

What you'll learn

People are the most valuable asset of any business, but they are also the most unpredictable, and the most difficult asset to manage. And although managing people well is critical to the health of any organization, most managers don't get the training they need to make good management decisions. Now, award-winning authors and renowned management Professors Mike Useem and Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School have designed this course to introduce you to the key elements of managing people. Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you how to motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change your organization’s architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization.

Health Care Innovation

Course 4, 7 hours

What you'll learn

In this course, you’ll learn the foundational economic theories behind health care innovation and how to optimize your own health care practice or organization. Designed to help you gain a practical understanding of innovation techniques, operations management, and value and quality in the health care setting, this course will help you apply these frameworks to assess health care practices and apply innovation while managing risk. You’ll also explore the best practices for evaluating one’s innovative practices, using real-life examples of success to see the concepts in action. By the end of this course, you’ll have honed your skills in optimizing health care operations, and be able to develop the right set of evaluations and questions to achieve best innovative practices within your organization.