{"id":65761,"date":"2016-03-22T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/?page_id=65761"},"modified":"2026-03-23T09:41:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:41:23","slug":"health-policy-and-law","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/sph\/programs\/mph\/health-policy-and-law\/","title":{"rendered":"MPH Functional Certificate: Health Policy and Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Improving healthcare<span>\u00a0<\/span>requires smart policies that rest on sound <span>evidence.<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span>Major challenges include assuring affordable healthcare for all<span>; <\/span>containing costs and cutting waste<span>; <\/span>assuring availability of <span>the right\u00a0<\/span>caregivers\u00a0<span>in the right places;\u00a0and relying on governments, professionals, and markets\u00a0<\/span>to take on jobs they are competent to perform. This certificate equips students to analyze, design, and improve health policies using economic, political, and legal perspectives.<\/p>\n<h2>Learning Outcomes<\/h2>\n<p>Upon graduation, students <span>in the 16-unit certificate <\/span><span><\/span>will be able to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Critically evaluate health policies, both domestically and globally, with special attention to political power, money, and equity.<\/li>\n<li>Appraise and defend the\u00a0effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of health policies.<\/li>\n<li>Develop policy proposals that recognize financial, political, and legal constraints.<\/li>\n<li>Determine the factors influencing successful policy implementation.<\/li>\n<li>Articulate and support policy and legal analyses to different audiences in writing and orally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Course Requirements<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span>SPH PM 735 Health Care Finance (4 units)* <strong>or<\/strong> PM 833 Health Economics (4 units)*<\/span><span><\/span><\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 760 Health Law, Policy, and Policymaking (4 units)<\/li>\n<li><em>Choose 8 units from the following courses*:<\/em>\n<ul>\n<li>SPH GH 854 Data to Dashboards: Building Excel Skills to Support Health Program Decisions (2 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH GH 888 Seminar on Global Health Policy Issues (2 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH LW 830 Health Insurance and the Affordable Care Act (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH LW 850 Public Health Law (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH LW 854 Mental Health Law, Policy &amp; Ethics (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 735 Health Care Finance (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 740 Comparative Health Systems and Policy in Industrialized and BRIC Countries (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 795 Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Policy and Politics (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 802 Pharmaceutical Management, Policy, and Practice in the 21st Century: A Case Study Approach (2 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 833 Health Economics (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 834 Planning and Regulating to Fix Health Care (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 840 Analysis of Current Health Policy Issues (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH PM 851 Organizing and Advocacy for Health Policy Change (4 units)<\/li>\n<li>SPH SB 860 Strategies for Public Health Advocacy (4 units)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>*A course cannot satisfy multiple requirement groups.<\/p>\n<h3>Integrative Learning Experience<\/h3>\n<p>Students will participate in a mock legislative, regulatory, or legal\u00a0<span>hearing on a health policy controversy facing federal or state governments<\/span>. The <span>topics\u00a0<\/span>and stakeholder <span>perspectives\u00a0<\/span>will be selected by the certificate director and other faculty members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Improving healthcare\u00a0requires smart policies that rest on sound evidence.\u00a0Major challenges include assuring affordable healthcare for all; containing costs and cutting waste; assuring availability of the right\u00a0caregivers\u00a0in the right places;\u00a0and relying on governments, professionals, and markets\u00a0to take on jobs they are competent to perform. This certificate equips students to analyze, design, and improve health policies using [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4502,"featured_media":0,"parent":17110,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65761"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100512,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65761\/revisions\/100512"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}