econ review question 4

sticking with the Missions, draw a demand curve for “professional baseball” in America.

now disaggregate “professional baseball” into “major league” baseball and “minor league” baseball (i.e., AAA, AA, etc. – still paid professionals, not your local softball league) – draw these respective curves.

talk about the slopes of the curves and the relative positions of the curves on the graph – what determines their relative positions and relative slopes?

econ review question 3

I went to a Missions game the other day and I was reflecting on the rather

meager salaries the players earn, vs. their peers in the majors.

Use value marginal product of labor as one source of difference in salary.

Come up with an example of how this works in health care.

NEED TO KNOW: Community Rating vs. Experience Rating

Community rating - everyone pays $100 for insurance because the expectation is that will have enough in the pool to pay for all the various healthcare needs of the individuals in the community.

Experience rating - the low-risk people pay $50, the high-risk people pay $500, everyone else falls between based on their individual risk levels and likelihood of using the resource.

http://www.healthinsurance.info/HICOMM.HTM


For more detail, read further - text is from the site above:

A "Premium" is the price paid in advance for an insurance policy. 

With "Community Rating," everyone pays the same premium. An insurer using community rating to set insurance premiums ignores any differences in expected costs among insured groups or people. If an insurer uses community rating, but people know and use their expected costs to decide whether or not to buy insurance, then only the sickest people may wind up signing up for insurance. 

With "Experience Rating," people pay different premiums based on differences in their demographics, past health care utilization, medical status, and other factors. "Underwriting" is the way in which insurance companies project what the expected covered health costs will be for a particular person of group. "Medical Underwriting" includes assessment of the health or chronic illness of a person or group. The issue of whether health insurance premiums should be based on community rating or experience rating is a complex one involving social concerns, adverse selection, and privacy issues. Community rating was once common, but has been eroded. One result is that higher cost groups (and individuals) are charged higher premiums. 

Sadly, some employers may not hire people with chronically-ill dependents for fear that it will increase their health care premiums. This is one reason why proposals to reform health insurance often suggest a return to community rating or some other type of premium subsidy from the chronically-well to the chronically-ill. "One Year Lag Insurance" is an extreme form of experience rating in which the insurer increases next year's group premium by the entire amount of this year's group loss. This is almost like having no insurance at all, except for the year lag between a group's loss and the corresponding increase in the group's premium. This is one reason why people want to reform the small group insurance market. One-year-lag insurance creates perverse incentives for game playing between employers and insurers. Sometimes small employers have an incentive to switch insurance carriers each year. Sometimes insurance companies have an incentive to dump small employers. Constant switching is costly and aggravates the already-inefficient nature of the small group market. One type of proposed reform is a limit on how much insurance premiums can be changed from one year to another.

Meaningful Contribution: A Grey Area

Many people feel that a not-for-profit healthcare organization should return value for the tax benefits it has received. 

How would you justify a healthy profit margin to somebody with those beliefs?

Orals Quant Question

Here is an example of a Quant question that could potentially come up during Orals.

Do you think you could work through this process in a confident manner?



You have a research question which suggests a pre- vs. post-design of two phases in time separated by an intervention
[12 months baseline, intervention, 12 months post-intervention).

Q:  To compare the two phases, what statistic would you use?
Walk through the steps in the research process.
What are your assumptions?
What are the dependent variable (DV) and independent variables (IV)?

A: Calculate summary statistics for each phase (mean, std. deviation, range).

     Best answer: Compare the means using an analysis of variance
     (a one-way ANOVA since you have only 1 independent variable [phase] and 1 dependent variable [criterion]).

You can run t-test for comparisons. [note how value of t-statistic and  F from one-way ANOVA are related]

You can run linear regression with caution if you can interpret the components of the regression equation.

Easily described with SPSS outputs.

Helpful Rubric When Preparing for Orals

This is the rubric for Strategic Management, but is applicable to preparing for Oral Boards, too.

Tuesday Tidbits (A Chaplain Brooks Perspctive)

Photo Courtesy of http://www.lostlettermen.com/article/top-100-college-fball-traditions-97-baylors-real-life-bears-judge-joy-and-j

 

Bears,

Chaplain Brooks has been kind enough to grace us with this week's tidbits.  Enjoy!

 



* Every single MHA/MBA student this year experienced an oral examination in Organizational Ethics. Pick their brains. It’s perfectly fine to ask them which questions they were asked and about the details of their experience. In fact, I highly encourage it. Additionally, it would prove valuable for MHA-only students to borrow a copy of Weber’s Business Ethics in Healthcare from your classmates. Read chapters 1-13 and think about what you would say about the ethical issues presented. The Baylor-approved scope of my bioethics class was limited (biomedical ethics). However, over the course of this year all students should have gained perspective and knowledge adequate to address ethical issues in the context business, particularly in business of healthcare.

* Over-prepare. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Do not seek a minimalistic approach. Beyond the fact that your orals is at stake you need to fully use this opportunity to connect the dots with all of the knowledge you have been exposed to during this year. This will help you with your residency projects. More importantly, it will help you in the future to more successfully impact patients and their family members.

* During the evening before and morning of orals, keep your habits the same. In other words, don’t consume six cups of coffee to boost your performance – you may have unintended side effects that will interfere with your performance! "I’ll take a Venti Shock Triple Latte, a Biggby Red Eye, and a pot of ‘Death Wish Coffee’" (yes, such a coffee exists and you may purchase a bag on Amazon for 19.99 – fortunately it’s both organic and fair trade). As Han Solo would say, "I’ll see you in…the latrine."

* Answer what you know and acknowledge what you do not know. Avoid using terms that you cannot explain when questioned.

* Give the BLUF and THEN expand upon your answer. In other words, don’t walk us around the barn four times and then eventually get to your answer. Be clear and organized in your thinking process and in your presentation.

* INTEGRATE KNOWLEDGE. If appropriate, roll in some economics, law, and ethics (of course!).

* The board will have access to the particular projects you have worked on over the year. If questioned about a project, it’s helpful to be able to remember it (repressed memories? : ).
* Remember that some of the board members may not have been exposed to some of the terminology and concepts you have learned this year. Be aware of this and seek to translate this info for them. One person’s view on board prep 

* Do not attempt to guess what board members might like to hear. Use the knowledge and convictions you have gained to formulate a reasonable and intelligent answer and defend your answer (without being defensive or obnoxious – not that I’d expect that from anyone in our group this year).

* Don’t use your library voice; don’t shout either. Sit up (slouching screams that you don’t care). Look sharp. Make eye contact with board members. Avoid "you know" and "that’s a great question."

* Know the fundamentals (at minimum). They may not carry the day, but they may sink you if you do not know them.

* Practice with mock boards. Do not be complacent.

* Your goal: a superior performance. This type of performance is a great indicator of your future as a healthcare administrator.

SIC ‘EM BEARS!