MPH Functional Certificate: Health Policy and Law

Improving population health requires smart policies and effective laws that rest on sound evidence. Major challenges include assuring affordable healthcare for all; containing costs and cutting waste; assuring availability of the right caregivers in the right places; and relying on governments, professionals, and markets to take on jobs they are competent to perform. This certificate equips students to analyze, design, and improve policies and laws in the US or globally.

Upon graduation, students in the 16-credit certificate will be able to:

• Critically evaluate health policy issues at multiple levels of government (local, state, and national) both domestically and globally, with special attention to political, social, economic, and organizational factors.
• Appraise and defend the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of health policies.
• Develop policy proposals that recognize legal, financial, and political constraints.
• Determine the factors influencing successful policy implementation.
• Articulate and justify policy and legal analyses to diverse audiences through written and/or oral deliverables.

Course Requirements

• PM 735 Health Care Finance (4 cr) or PM 833 Health Economics (4 cr)
• PM 760 Health Law, Policy, and Policymaking (4 cr)
• A minimum of 4 credits from the following courses*:
  • LW 830 Health Insurance and the Affordable Care Act (4 cr)
  • LW 850 Public Health Law (4 cr)
  • LW 854 Mental Health Law, Policy & Ethics (4 cr)
  • PM 735 Health Care Finance (4 cr)
  • PM 740 Comparative Health Systems and Policy in Industrialized and BRIC Countries (4 cr)
  • PM 802 Pharmaceutical Management, Policy, and Practice in the 21st Century: A Case Study Approach (2 cr)
  • PM 833 Health Economics (4 cr)
  • PM 834 Planning and Regulating to Fix Health Care (4 cr)
  • PM 840 Analysis of Current Health Policy Issues (4 cr)
  • PM 851 Organizing and Advocacy for Health Policy Change (4 cr)
  • SB 860 Strategies for Public Health Advocacy (4 cr)
• Complete one of the following courses, preferably in your final semester*:
  • LW 850 Public Health Law (4 cr)
  • PM 740 Comparative Health Systems and Policy in Industrialized and BRIC Countries (4 cr)
  • PM 834 Planning and Regulating to Fix Health Care (4 cr)
  • PM 840 Analysis of Current Health Policy Issues (4 cr)
  • PM 851 Organizing and Advocacy for Health Policy Change (4 cr)

*One course cannot satisfy multiple requirements.

Integrative Learning Experience

Students will participate in one of several mock legislative, regulatory, or legal hearings. The topics and stakeholder perspectives will be selected by the certificate director and other faculty members from among healthcare controversies facing federal or state governments.