Healthcare Economics: Final Project Guidelines and Grading Guide Overview The final project for this course is the creation of a mock open comment to a significant federal legislation that has affected healthcare or the healthcare industry. An open comment is an informed opinion written in the form of a letter to counsel authors of legislation on the perceived benefits and consequences of the opinion. You will select a key issue affecting health and healthcare in the United States from the topic areas as defined by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and identify a corresponding health policy addressing that issue. This mock open comment will examine the macroeconomic forces at play in a recent healthcare policy and determine whether any forces were inadequately considered. The mock open comment should be nonpartisan, stakeholder agnostic, and supported by research from reputed sources. The final submission will correspond to the Purdue University method of organization for white papers as indicated on its Online Writing Lab (OWL). The final project will be broken down into three separate components: submission of an executive summary with references, the open comment paper, and a five-minute 'TED Talk-style' presentation. The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Two, Four, and Five. The final project will be submitted in Module Seven. In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes: Assess the strategic and operational use of economic principles and indicators to manipulate the healthcare experience for patients and their caregivers Articulate the effects of contemporary policies and regulations on the American healthcare system and the healthcare consumer Describe the impact of prominent financial models in healthcare on the strategies of market players Distinguish the influence of socioeconomic factors of American society on the healthcare delivery system and community health Analyze ways that behavioral models of demanders, suppliers, and other healthcare agencies influence economic determinates and barriers to change in the American healthcare system Prompt After choosing a topic area from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s topic areas, you will create a comment letter addressing the abilities and inabilities of a legislative action to impact the economic forces impacting the issue. The policy you select to evaluate should affect a health topic in which you have an interest or one that affects a population of significance to you. While your submission will center on a pivotal piece of legislation, this is not a policy paper. Focus on how the legislation would affect the key health issue and the macroeconomic forces that produced the issue. The TED Talk-style portion of your project should start by making your au ...

1. Healthcare Economics: Final Project Guidelines and Grading
Guide
Overview
The final project for this course is the creation of a mock open
comment to a significant federal legislation that has affected
healthcare or the healthcare industry. An open comment is an
informed opinion written in the form of a letter to counsel
authors of legislation on the perceived benefits and
consequences of the opinion. You will select a key issue
affecting health and healthcare in the United States from the
topic areas as defined by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
and identify a corresponding health policy addressing that issue.
This mock open comment will examine the macroeconomic
forces at play in a recent healthcare policy and determine
whether any forces were inadequately considered. The mock
open comment should be nonpartisan, stakeholder agnostic, and
supported by research from reputed sources. The final
submission will correspond to the Purdue University method of
organization for white papers as indicated on its Online Writing
Lab (OWL).
The final project will be broken down into three separate
components: submission of an executive summary with
references, the open comment paper, and a five-minute 'TED
Talk-style' presentation.
The project is divided into three milestones, which will be
submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold
learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones
will be submitted in Modules Two, Four, and Five. The final
project will be submitted in Module Seven.

2. In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the
following course outcomes:
Assess the strategic and operational use of economic principles
and indicators to manipulate the healthcare experience for
patients and their caregivers
Articulate the effects of contemporary policies and regulations
on the American healthcare system and the healthcare consumer
Describe the impact of prominent financial models in healthcare
on the strategies of market players
Distinguish the influence of socioeconomic factors of American
society on the healthcare delivery system and community health
Analyze ways that behavioral models of demanders, suppliers,
and other healthcare agencies influence economic determinates
and barriers to change in the American healthcare system
Prompt
After choosing a topic area from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation’s topic areas, you will create a comment letter
addressing the abilities and inabilities of a legislative action to
impact the economic forces impacting the issue. The policy you
select to evaluate should affect a health topic in which you have
an interest or one that affects a population of significance to
you. While your submission will center on a pivotal piece of
legislation, this is not a policy paper. Focus on how the
legislation would affect the key health issue and the
macroeconomic forces that produced the issue.
The TED Talk-style portion of your project should start by
making your audience care, using a relatable example or an
intriguing idea explained clearly and with conviction. Describe
your evidence and how and why your idea could be
implemented, and conclude by addressing how your idea could

3. affect your audience if they were to accept it. Further guidelines
to preparing a good TED Talk are provided at the following
link: TEDx Speaker Guide.
Your letter, as well as the corresponding 'TED-style' video
presentation, will address the following critical elements:
Outline of Open Comment Letter with References
Based on the chosen key issue affecting health status, select a
significant piece of federal legislation to analyze and explain
how the federal legislation will address the issue.
Elaborate on the macroeconomic market forces at play that
necessitated the piece of legislation.
Define the intended consequences of the legislation (i.e. to
protect a vulnerable population, affect the value proposition of
the health system, etc.)
Conduct a review of current resources (articles, websites,
interviews, etc.) related to the tenets of the legislation.
Select the resources that most appropriately and concisely
examine the legislation's macro-and microeconomic impact and
cite them according to APA citation guidelines.
Assess the point of view demonstrated in each resource and
analyze the microeconomic mechanisms that will influence the
behaviors of providers, insurers, vendors, and the population as
a whole.
Open Comment Letter
Describe how the intended consequences of the legislation will
positively and/or negatively impact the key health issue that it
is tasked to affect once applied to a realistic environment.
Differentiate between the manner in which the major tenets of
the legislation would be interpreted by a health economist,
health practitioner, and/or consumer of healthcare services.
Summarize the logical interpretations of the legislation in a
document with a member of Congress as the proposed audience.
Hypothesize the outcomes of the legislation in a document with
a member of Congress as the proposed audience.
Decide whether the key health issue is being served by creating

4. or subduing supply, demand, or cost of healthcare services and
which stakeholder group (providers, consumers, or payors)
bears the primary responsibility for its implementation.
Discern to what extent the legislation will impact the
reimbursement and/or financial health of providers operating as
for-profit, nonprofit, military, or government-sponsored care
financing models.
Propose changes to the legislation that could be adopted to
further affect socioeconomic determinants of health such as
poverty, education, and diversity.
Propose what tactics could be implemented to ensure that the
initial intent of the legislation could be safeguarded against
perversion by macroeconomic forces and agents looking to
exploit those forces to their advantage.
TED Talk
Passionately deliver your exposition to an audience of thought
leaders, legislators, and stakeholders via a recorded web
conference.
Create an innovative introduction that makes the audience care,
using a relatable example or an intriguing idea.
Create the body of the talk that will describe your evidence and
how and why your suggestions could be implemented.
Create the closing of the talk that will address how your idea
could affect your audience if they were to accept what has been
presented.
Milestones
Milestone One: Outline of Open Comment Letter with
References
Submit an outline of your open comment letter with references.
Choose a topic area from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation’s topic areas and then search journals, interview
clips, and websites to find a piece of legislation that addresses
the issue. Compile your sources and create a bibliography using
APA style for listing citations. Digest the content of the

5. legislation and complete a preliminary macroeconomic analysis
of its intended impact. Provide an outline, which will serve as
an overview of everything you learned from your research of the
health issue and your preliminary recommendations for the
legislation. This deliverable should be no more than two pages
in length. It should help the reader understand why you chose
the health issue at hand, how the legislation will affect it, what
economic concepts and factors are at play, and what the
implications of your findings are. This milestone is graded with
the Milestone One Rubric.
Milestone Two: Open Comment Letter Draft
Submit a first draft of your open comment letter. An open
comment is an informed opinion written in the form of a letter
to counsel authors of legislation on the perceived benefits and
consequences of the opinion. It should include background on
the key health issue and your assumption of the risks inferred
by the legislative action (i.e., unintended consequences, public
reaction, loopholes, etc.). The economic analysis should be
more complete than that of your executive summary, taking into
account the nature of the U.S. healthcare system, socioeconomic
factors, behavioral models of stakeholders that shape
interpretations and outcomes. The document should not be
based solely on emotion, though it should not be divorced of
sentiment as it needs to rouse the proper energy needed to effect
change. The goal of the document is to convince the reader that
your suggestions for inclusion, exclusion, and adaptations to the
legislation should be included in the final version of the action.
It should be no more than five pages, not including references
and supporting appendices. This milestone is graded with the
Milestone Two Rubric.
Milestone Three: TED Talking Points
Submit a bulleted list of the points you will speak to in your
TED-style presentation. A TED Talk is a short audiovisual
presentation that espouses new ideas supported by concrete

6. evidence, delivered by engaging, charismatic speakers. Your
presentation should clarify the major points of the key health
issue and the legislation, but moreover it should deeply explore
why this topic is important to you and how the intended results
will impact you or the population you hold dear. The talk
should be no more than five minutes. This milestone is graded
with the Milestone Three Rubric.
Final Project Submission: Open Comment Letter and TED talk
Submit the final version of your open comment letter along with
the final version of your TED talk. This submission is graded
with the Final Project Rubric (embedded below).