Economics and Management in Healthcare

Code:

1OP11

Acronym:

EGSS

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Economics

Instance: 2022/2023 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Agrupamento Científico de Economia
Institution Responsible:	Faculty of Economics

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LECO	11	Bologna Syllabus since 2012	3	-	3	42	81
LGES	28	Bologna Syllabus since 2012	3	-	3	42	81

Teaching language

Portuguese and english

Objectives

The course provides students with a set of specific economic methods that enables them to understand the health system in general, and, in particular, the operation of health care providers. The course also provides an introduction to management models of healthcare providers.

Learning outcomes and competences

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. Identify the factors determining the demand for, and the supply of, healthcare;
2. Identify different forms of public intervention in healthcare and compare health systems;
3. Apply economic principles to understand the behavior of agents in healthcare;
4. Understand the different financing and payment systems in healthcare and their incentives;
5. Discuss the main evaluation techniques applied in healthcare and interpret the results of economic evaluation studies.

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. Introduction
1.1. Management and Health Economics
1.2. Healthcare firms and the economy
1.3. Health Systems and Policies

2. Uncertainty and Imperfect Information in Healthcare Markets 
2.1. Adverse selection and moral hazard
2.2. Monopoly and asymmetric information
2.3. Supplier-induced demand
2.4. Small area variations

3. Health financing
3.1. Health expenditures and income
3.2. Trends in health expenditures
3.3. Health expenditures and ageing
3.4. Health systems financing

4. Health production and demand for health
4.1. The production of health
4.2. Production factors in healthcare
4.3. The demand for health and the demand for healthcare
4.4. Demand curve for healthcare

5. Management of healthcare providers
5.1. Payment systems
5.2. Hospital management
5.3. Primary care

6. Economic evaluation in health
6.1. Introduction to economic evaluation in health
6.2. Types of economic evaluation
6.3. QALYs and DALYs 
6.4. The monetary value of health
6.5. Economic evaluation  as a framework for choice

7. Pharmaceutical markets
7.1. The pharmaceutical industry
7.2. Innovation, clinical trials, and patents

Mandatory literature

Pedro Luís Pita Barros; Economia da saúde. ISBN: 978-972-40-7571-6

Complementary Bibliography

Bhattacharya Jay; Health economics. ISBN: 978-1-137-02996-6
Sherman Folland; The^economics of health and health care. ISBN: 978-1-138-20805-6

Teaching methods and learning activities

Lectures with practical applications, in which the concepts and models of economic analysis are presented and examples and cases are discussed. Classes are conducted in order to maximize the exchange of ideas.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Teste	60,00
Trabalho escrito	40,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	42,00
Frequência das aulas	39,00
Total:	81,00

Eligibility for exams

Distributed evaluation: 
Individual assignment (40%) and test, to be held on the date of the final exam (60%). 
OR 
Final Exam

Calculation formula of final grade

Distributed evaluation: 
Individual assignment (40%) and test, to be held on the date of the final exam (60%). 
OR 
Final Exam

Classification improvement

Only with the final exam.

Observations

One of the classes will be taught in Portuguese and the other one in English.