Health Law, Policy, and Management: Now Is the Time.
Health Law, Policy, and Management: Now Is The Time
Health policies have a huge effect on our lives. Changes to policies related to Medicaid eligibility, unemployment assistance during the pandemic, Affordable Care Act coverage, and state handgun laws will have an impact on our health for years to come. Health reform will continue to be one of the top issues on legislative agendas. In order to ensure new policies are equitable, research is needed to gain a better understanding of how to dismantle the structural forces of inequity.
The Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management (HLPM) at Boston University School of Public Health brings together experts across disciplines to inform the development and refinement of healthcare policies and programs. HLPM faculty train future public health leaders in the foundational knowledge, methods, policy analysis, and research that is needed to generate evidence-based policies that improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations.
“HLPM has a vibrant, creative, hard-working, and collaborative sense of community where faculty, staff, and students genuinely care about one another’s work and personal well-being, while producing ambitious studies and offering important policy advice,” says Michael D. Stein, chair and professor of health law, policy, and management.
Stein says the department is uniquely interdisciplinary, with a focus on social policy, healthcare financing, safety-net delivery systems, and marginalized populations, that distinguishes it from peer institutions.
“The collected researchers and teachers include senior scholars who have been leaders in their fields for decades as well as a spectacular group of junior faculty,” he says.
HLPM faculty teach courses for the Health Policy and Law, Healthcare Management, and Human Rights and Social Justice certificates in the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree program, as well as the Master of Science (MS) in Population Health Research: Translation and Implementation Science, PhD in Health Services Research, and Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) programs.
Stein says the department’s shared mission of generating and disseminating evidence-based information can inform practice and policy and improve health and health equity.
“I’m proud of our ability to combine impressive scholarly output and top-notch teaching with extensive hands-on engagement, cutting-edge policy questions, and the key operational challenges facing safety-net delivery systems,” Stein says.
Throughout its history at SPH, the Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management has accomplished several major goals, including establishing the first Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights focus at a school of public health; developing a CAHME-accredited Healthcare Management program, initiating a Medicaid Policy laboratory, and growing a health services and policy doctoral program. The department has also maintained a fruitful partnership with the US Department of Veterans Affairs for more than 20 years.
“We have successfully merged legal scholars with an existing health policy and management department, assembled an extraordinary staff, recruited a cohort of dynamic junior faculty, and formed a cohesive group united around a shared mission: translating policy-relevant research across populations and settings,” Stein says. He believes this has created a personal closeness among all members of the department.
Key research projects include the Partner Evidence-based Policy Resource Center (PEPReC) for the Veterans Hospital Administration, which studies demand and access to care for veterans, as well as the Healthy Minds Study—the largest, most comprehensive study of mental health, health behaviors, and health service use on U.S. college campuses— which is co-led by HLPM faculty. Department faculty are also among the lead investigators of the historic, $89-million, four-state Healing Communities Study, which is bending the curve on opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts and beyond.
“Our research portfolio is as diverse as our faculty, ranging from developing new statistical methods to new clinical interventions,” Stein says. “The unifying theme is our focus on vulnerable populations and public policy—whether related to the management of Medicaid and other federal healthcare financing programs, or the effects of institutionalized hostility to immigrants, sexual and racial minorities, and people with substance use and mental health disorders.”
Stein says the department plans to continue developing its educational programs to provide students with the most impactful experience possible.
“We will continue to steer two large MPH certificates, steadily improve the connections across our courses, and integrate our masters and doctoral programs around themes of equity and efficiency in health policy and management,” Stein says. “We also plan to expand our scholarship around mental health and substance use issues and a widening array of social policy concerns, and become a go-to resource for both Medicaid and VA policy-relevant information.”