hpm


Health Policy & Management in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh,
 thank you for choosing to further explore our mission, our faculty and our academic programs.

 

Mission Statement

 

The mission of the Department of Health Policy & Management is:

  1. to advance the state of knowledge and enhance professional practice of healthcare management in both the private and public sectors;

  2. to increase understanding of the factors influencing the costs, utilization, distribution and outcomes of health care services and

  3. to advance the state of knowledge in health policy making, including the policy formulation and implementation processes as well as analyzing and evaluating policy options. This mission is achieved by the faculty providing graduate education and professional development programs, engaging in scholarship and sponsored research, and by performing community service activities relevant to the disciplines represented within HPM.

Teaching & Professional Development

 

The Department of Health Policy & Management provides rigorous programs of graduate-level education that foster development of critical skills, health management and policy competencies, values, and knowledge that graduates will apply in professional roles within health care and public health as the foundation for their continuing career development. The Department of HPM prepares individuals to assume roles of leadership, policy development, and management within healthcare systems and public health. Degree offerings include the MHA, MPH (two concentrations currently available: Health Care Program Management; Health Policy) and JD/MPH.
Emphasis is placed on leadership and professional development activities as a complement to in-class and on-line instruction. Students benefit from participation in our Executive-in-Residence, professional mentorship, the students can be a participant in the American College of Health Care Executives Higher Education Network, related networking activities and site supervised intensive field placements.

 

Community Service

 

HPM Faculty contribute to community service by advancing the state of knowledge and professional practice in institutional and system healthcare management, health services and health economics research and scholarship in the development, advocacy, and analysis of health policy and the policy-making process. Students are encouraged to participate in service-learning and civic engagement opportunities relevant to their discipline and professional development.

 

Research

 

The Department’s faculty is committed to developing a broad base of research and scholarship, as the intellectual foundation for our current /future professional education programs. The multidisciplinary nature of both health policy and health management presents both challenges and opportunities. The core disciplines represented within the Department include health economics, human resource management, health policy, long-term care, law, ethics, and organization studies applied to health care. HPM Faculty are engaged in interdisciplinary research, scholarship, and publication addressing a range of problems relevant to health policy, health services delivery, outcome measurement, patient safety, leadership and organization management relevant to health care organizations and systems.

In The Spotlight

Dr. Barron has been selected as the 2009 recipient of the Allegheny County Medical Society Benjamin Rush Individual Public Health Award

Dr. Longest gave the following lecture: “The Endgame for Health Reform Policy.” Project Management Institute, Pittsburgh Chapter, Pittsburgh, November 12, 2009.
 
George Huber and Dr. Longest published: Schools of Public Health and the Health of the Public: Enhancing the Capabilities of Faculty To Be Influential in Policymaking,  American Journal of Public Health. Published Ahead of Print on November 12, 2009, as 10.2105/AJPH.2009.164749.

October 16, 2009   Annual Mentors/Students Conference Attendees…’First-year’ Students, Mentors, HPM Faculty    

October 30, 2009   Johns Hopkins will conduct student interviews for Administrative Fellowship Positions

November 16 and 17, 2009   2009 HPM Department’s National Advisory Committee Meeting    

December 1, 2009   Special Presentation to all HPM Students Mr. Charles R. Evans, Chair, American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) And President and CEO, International Health Services Group (IHSC) IHSC is a social enterprise Mr. Evans founded in 2007, to support health services development in the world’s underserved areas.  IHSC’s mission is to work with established organizations, to supplement their capabilities in healthcare management and development.  As part of his role as Chairman, Mr. Evans hopes to expand awareness within ACHE of international healthcare issues.

Gerald Barron, Associate Professor of Public Health Practice in the Department of Health Policy and Management has been chosen to be the Lead on a Project to establish the Lehigh Valley Health Department (Lehigh and Northampton counties), which when established will be the first Joint County Health Department in Pennsylvania and will bring local public health services to 450,000 people who have none to limited services currently.

Dr. Yuting Zhang received a $1 million challenge grant from NIMH to evaluate the most cost-effective methods to cover psychotropic medications for Medicare beneficiaries.

"In Pursuit of Health Reform —Again" Beaufort B. Longest, PhD M. Allen Pond Professor
Director, Health Policy Institute
  The United States is again on the unsure path to health reform.  President Obama has picked up the mantle this time, but like his reform-minded predecessors faces powerful opposition to changing the status quo. The debate is intense and the outcome is in doubt.  Dr. Longest will discuss
 o   A brief historical context of reform efforts
 o   A “menu” of reform options and variables
 o   The difficulties of paying for reform, and options for doing so
 o   The prognosis for reform
3 - 4:00 PM, Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Room A115 Crabtree Hall

Department of Health Policy & Management
Graduate School of Public Health University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Yuting Zhang received a grant award from the Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) pilot program supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and the RAND University of Pittsburgh Health Institute (RUPHI).

Mothers, newborns at risk in Pennsylvania's budget cuts by Judith Lave, PhD. Thursday July 09, 2009, 1:28 AM,  PennLive.com

 HPM’s latest NEJM study, “The Effect of Medicare Part D on Drug and Medical Spending”, has gained broad media coverage. Yuting Zhang is the first author of this NEJM paper; Julie Donohue and Judith Lave are coauthors.

 

Dr. Yuting Zhang was selected to receive the research funding from the Central Research Development Fund at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Dr. Yuting Zhang had four papers accepted for presentation at the AcademyHealth annual meeting in Chicago in June 2009

 

Dr. Yuting Zhang was selected as one of two recipients in 2009 to receive the Health Disparity Pilot Grant Award sponsored by the RAND-University of Pittsburgh Health Institute (RUPHI), the Center for Minority Health, and the Section on Healthcare Disparities and International Medicine.

 

Dr. Judith Lave has been designated a National Associate of the National Academies in recognition of the work that she has done on committees that carry out the work for the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

 

The Department of Health Policy & Management is now offering a Ph.D. program in Health Services Research and Policy.  We are currently accepting and reviewing applications for the first class of students for Fall 2009.
Click here: www.hsrp.pitt.edu for information about the program and application instructions.

 

Faculty Position: Now accepting applications and nominations for the position of Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management (HPM).

 

Schedule for Health Policy Institute's Governance Briefings

  Presentations and Publications by

 HPM Faculty

Rachel Garfield, PhD. article: “Mental Health Policy Development in the States: The Piecemeal Nature of Transformational Change.” Psychiatric Services. October 2009, 60: 1329-35.
 
Beaufort Longest, PhD,  presentation: “The Long, Slow Path to Health Reform.” American College of Healthcare Executives, Western Pennsylvania Chapter. Erie, Pennsylvania, September 17, 2009.

Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (in press). “How the Medicare Part D Drug Benefit Changed the Distribution of Out-of-Pocket Pharmacy Spending among Older Beneficiaries". Yuting Zhang is the first author and coauthors include Judy Lave, Joe Newhouse and Julie Donohue.

NEJM July 2 2009, “The Effect of Medicare Part D on Drug and Medical Spending, Yuting Zhang, Julie Donohue, Judith Lave, Gerald O’Donnell, Joseph Newhouse
 
Two publications (accepted):
1. Psychiatric Services 2009: “The Effects of Prior Authorization on Medication Discontinuation among Medicaid Beneficiaries with Bipolar Disorder” -
Yuting Zhang, PhD, Alyce S Adams, PhD, Dennis Ross-Degnan, ScD, Fang Zhang, PhD, and Stephen B Soumerai, ScD.
 
2. Health Affairs coming out on February 3, 2009: “The Effects of the Donut Hole on Drug Spending: A Closer Look at Medicare Part D” -
Yuting Zhang, Julie M. Donohue, Joseph P. Newhouse, and Judith R. Lave
 
Monica R. Costlow, JD and Judith R. Lave, PhD were published in The Speaker’s Journal on Pennsylvania Policy, Autism in Pennsylvania: What Lies Ahead? The article was titled, “The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Approaches to Financing Autism Services: Medical Assistance and Mandated Benefits.”
 
Patricia M. Sweeney, JD, MPH, RNL Two Presentations:
 
1. Legal Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies: A Workshop for Southeast Pennsylvania
December 3, 2008
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Montgomery County Fire Academy
1175 Conshohocken Road
Conshohocken, PA 19428 
 
2. State Public Health Laws and Municipal Codes: Using existing law to strengthen the public health infrastructure in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Public Health Association Annual Meeting
Lowe's Hotel
Philadelphia, PA
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 3:15-4:45pm.
 
Dr. Yuting Zhang - two papers accepted for an oral presentation at the 2nd Biennial Conference of the American Society of Health Economists in June 2008:
 
1) Economic and Clinical Impacts of Prior Authorization for Antipsychotic and Anticonvulsant Medications among Medicaid Beneficiaries with Bipolar Disorder
 
2) The Medicare Part D Prescription Benefit: Evidence on Medication Treatment Patterns, Hospitalization Rates, and Spending on Medical Services

 Dr. Longest spoke with Chris Moore on WQED’s On Q, Monday, November 17. The topic, Health Insurance: The Big Picture explains Health insurance reform, universal health care, challenges in the health insurance industry . . . discussed by featured guest Beaufort Longest, Ph.D., director of the Health Policy Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. These programs are archived on WQED’s webpage.

Click here to view BL:
http://www.wqed.org/ondemand/onq.php?id=386

This is the part that was broadcast before BL:
http://www.wqed.org/web_media/health-insurance-101.php?id=1
 
Drs. Judith R. Lave, Julie Donohue and Yuting Zhang are in the news!  Post Gazette story on their HA donut hole paper
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09034/946453-68.stm 
 
Dr. Zhang had two papers accepted for presentation at the 7th World Congress of International Health Economics Association (iHEA) biannual meeting in Beijing, China in July 2009.
 
"Opportunities and Challenges Face Public Health", Dr. Wesley Rohrer featured in April 2009 Western Pennsylvania Hospital News.
click here to read article

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Master Degree Programs

MHA * MPH * JD/MPH * ACEHSA reaccredits the MHA Program for six more years * Guide to Graduate Study in HPM

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