Solved by verified expert:MBA level thesis paper on population health, subtopic: communities of excellence program (Problem statement: Should the Federal Government mandate large healthcare organizations to attain such/similar certification for the better of the community they serve?”
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Health Policy Analysis
Thesis Paper
What you need to know
What is a Health Policy Analysis?
“An analysis that provides informed advice to a
client that relates to a public policy decision,
includes a recommended course of
action/inaction, and is framed by the client’s
powers and values.”
What is the Purpose Health Policy
Analysis?
● Ultimate product is a recommendation to a client on
how to address a problem
● Provides information to understand the problem
● Vehicle to disseminate ideas/arguments
● Persuade stakeholders
● Helps you to think through the problem & come up with
solutions
Thesis Development /
Health Policy Analysis
What you need to know
Individual Thesis Requirements
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DUE: 4/14/18
20 pages, excluding bibliography and appendices
APA Format
Quantitative Analysis
○ Review existing literature
○ Conduct original quantitative research such as survey,
questionnaire, data analysis
○ Both
● Submit via Turnitin (MAN6974 Course)
Individual Thesis Requirements
● Use the Policy Analysis Template
● Individual thesis topic must be related to the
general research topic selected by the group
● You are responsible to turn in a health policy
analysis thesis report based your own
individually selected topic
Individual Thesis Requirements
● Expand on the General Research Topic from your Group
Literature Review:
○ Population Health
○ Legislative and Regulatory Healthcare Policy
○ Healthcare Management Models
○ Healthcare Financing and Reimbursement
○ Healthcare Data Analytics
○ Aging and Preventative Care
○ Drug Therapies
○ Medical Tourism
○ Comparative International Healthcare Policy
Requirements / Health Policy Model
● Read ”The art of structuring and
writing a health policy analysis”
● Follow the Template
● Use APA
● Start Now!!!
5 Step Method for a
Writing Policy Analysis
1. Problem Statement
2. Background
3. Landscape
4. Options
5. Recommendation
6. Conclusion
Problem Statement
● Defines the problem
● Written in the form of a question
● Be succinct and specific!
● Needs & concerns of your client
Which one is a better policy statement?
● Should the senator’s top priorities include drafting
legislation regarding the need to address homelessness
and mental illness?
VS.
● What type of legislation should the senator draft for his
top priority of reducing homelessness among the mentally
ill?
Narrow or Broad but NOT Vague
● Narrow statements = less background & landscape info., do
not capture big picture
● Broad statements = more background & landscape info.,
capture big picture
● Vague = unfocused rambling paper. Use limitations such as
geography, time, or numerical boundaries
How can this problem statement be
focused?
What is the best use of the CDC’s resources to
improve the health status of our citizens?
How is this better?
What preventable health issue should
be the top priority for the Centers for
Disease and Control in the next year?
Ask yourself:
Can you imagine 3 to 5 potentially
viable options to address your
problem?
Problem Statement
● Concise & precise
● All other sections relate directly to your
problem statement
● Can always revise problem statement
Background
● Provides factual information to understand
the problem
● Informational only
● Keep your audience in mind
● Facts
● Preamble to policy analysis
Background
● Write to your client and his/her level of
understanding.
○ If your client doesn’t have background
knowledge of mental illness, provide
details.
● Create a complete picture.
Background
What type of legislation should the senator draft for his top
priority of reducing homelessness among the mentally ill?
○ If your client doesn’t have background
knowledge of mental illness, provide
details.
Landscape
● Reviews the various stakeholders & concerns
● I.D. key stakeholders (beyond the client)
● I.D. Key Factors (political, economic, practical,
legal factors)
Landscape
● Provides overall context
● Organize by stakeholders OR key factors
○ Stakeholder 1 and address the key factors
○ Key factor and address the stakeholders
● Tone is neutral and objective
Options
● Describe & Analyze 3-5 options to address
the problem
● Analysis of each option
○ Pros and cons
○ Equal analysis of each option (no favoritism)
● Develop 3-5 criteria for pro/con analysis
○ Cost, ROI, political feasibility
○ See table 13-2, pg. 261 in reading
Options
● Consider your client’s powers and values
when determining which 3-5 options to
detail.
● Maintaining the status quo can be an option.
○ Address the pros and cons.
● Must flow from Problem Statement
Identify, Analyze & Assess Options
●
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Gather information
○ Background info.
○ Review the literature
○ Collect new data
○ Survey best practices
○ Interview stakeholders
Consider health, feasibility, finances, budget, infrastructure, potential
partners, and the needs and concerns of the stakeholders (all of them!).
Come up with 3-5 potential policies and assess them.
■ List of criteria (rubric) for analysis – table option
■ Note pros and cons of each option
Options
● Headings
● Bullets
○ See Box 13.2 in your reading
● Side-by-side table
○ Descriptive or analytical
○ Supplemental to your text
○ Table 13.1 & 13.2
Recommendation
● Offer 1 option as the best solution
○ Why was it chosen?
○ How was it reached?
○ Consider client’s values and power
○ Drawbacks of the option
○ How can drawbacks be handled?
Conclusion
● Be Concise
● Summarize your findings
● Conclude with a persuasive statement
References & Appendices
● APA – use your manual!
● In-text citations need to match your
reference list and vice versa!
Recommendations
Schedule an appointment to meet with me.
Read & Re-read the required reading – “The Art of
Structuring & Writing a Health Policy Analysis” by
Teitelbaum & Wilensky.
It is the bible for your thesis!
Running head: HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Health Policy Analysis
Student’s (or Students’) Complete Name(s)
Problem Statement
1
HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
Make sure to write clear and concise sentences. Avoid writing wordy and lengthy
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sentences and do not use inflated words. Express your ideas as clearly as possible. Write a clear
problem statement in the form of a single question. This is the starting point of your analysis, so
writing a succinct problem statement will frame the entire analysis. As research analysts, your
goal is to connect all the dots across the various sections of the final analysis and align them
closely with the problem statement.
Ask yourself whether the problem statement is too broad. Depending on the research
problem under analysis, it might be necessary to narrow it. This can be accomplished by
focusing on a specific demographic group or geographical area. For instance, does your research
problem specifically address challenges in the South Florida region? Does it concern AfricanAmerican single parents without health insurance coverage?
As a rule of thumb, this section (serving as the introduction to your analysis) should
clearly specify “the needs and concerns of your client” (Tietelbaum & Wilensky, 2013, p. 255).
Note that the phrase enclosed by double quotation marks was copied verbatim from Tietelbaum
and Wilensky’s text; therefore, credit must be given to these authors and a page number must be
provided for all direct quotations. Please remember that if direct quotations include 40 words or
more, a block quotation format must be used (see APA Manual, 6th ed., p. 92). Make sure NOT
to use double quotation marks to enclose block quotations. If you are paraphrasing the material,
it is not necessary to include a page or paragraph number within parenthetical citations.
However, you must always give credit to original authors even if paraphrasing their material.
Finally, you should avoid writing vague statements. The problem statement should focus
on a specific issue, as opposed to a series of issues. This will make the analytical process more
HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
manageable. Make sure NOT to offer any solutions in this section of your analysis. Avoid
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writing long sentences whenever possible.
Background
It is essential to remember that the Background section is informational, as opposed to
analytical. In this section, you should specify why your team was charged with the analysis of
this problem. It is equally important to keep your “audience” in mind at all times. In addition to
your client (primary audience), other readers include your professor and possible faculty
members and/or healthcare industry practitioners interested in your topic. Providing as many
relevant facts (from empirical research) as possible, will strengthened your viewpoints and,
ostensibly, persuade your client as to why your proposed solution is the most appropriate.
However, to reiterate, remember this section is just “informing” others about the facts emerging
from your research. This section should not “analyze” the issue(s) at hand or offer any
recommendations at this point.
Landscape
Similar to the preceding Background section, the content of the Landscape section is twofold: to identify “key stakeholders and the factors that must be considered when analyzing the
problem” (Tietelbaum & Wilensky, 2013, p. 256). Your research should identify the main
stakeholders. In addition to your client, who is the main stakeholder, other individuals or entities
directly related to the research problem must also be identified.
Among the factors underlying policy implementation are the political, economic,
practical, and legal factors. Please refer to Tietelbaum and Wilensky’s text (p. 257) for specific
details about these factors. Finally, this section can be organized by stakeholders or by factors.
HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
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Options
The Background and Landscape sections serve as the preamble to this policy analysis and
puts the research problem in context. Tietelbaum and Wilensky (2013) suggest “three to five
alternatives for your client to consider” (p. 259). Your team should provide the positive and
negative aspects (i.e., pros and cons) for each alternative. This is what the authors deem “a
balanced analysis”. They also suggest selecting between three and five criteria to run the pro vs.
con analysis. Some criteria include: cost, Return-on Investment, political feasibility, etc. It is
important to remember that your client’s values and his/her ability to make (or not make)
decisions (i.e., power) must be kept in mind when making your final recommendation.
Organizing your list of options logically is extremely important. The first sentence in
each “Option” subsection should clearly describe that option.
Option 1. Describe the option. What are the pros of this option? What are the cons of
this option? Explain your argument briefly and concisely.
Option 2. Describe the option. What are the pros of this option? What are the cons of
this option? Explain your argument briefly and concisely.
Option 3. Describe the option. What are the pros of this option? What are the cons of
this option? Explain your argument briefly and concisely.
Option 4. Describe the option. What are the pros of this option? What are the cons of
this option? Explain your argument briefly and concisely.
Your team may choose to insert brief tables in this section to illustrate how the team
assessed each option. Make sure to keep the table content concise and brief, as tables are
supposed to supplement your narrative. You might want to refer to the analytic side-by-side
Table 13-2 appearing on page 261 of Tietelbaum and Wilensky’s textbook.
HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
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Recommendation
Choose ONLY ONE option as your recommendation. Why did your team choose this
option over the other ones? Did your team consider the client’s values and power when choosing
this option? Did the team consider and identify any possible drawbacks this recommended
option may have in its implementation? Did the team provide alternative ways to avert such
drawbacks, if any? Make sure NOT to repeat the analysis in this section.
Conclusion
Consider writing at least one concise paragraph wrapping up the entire content of this
analysis very briefly. Do not ramble! Get to the point! Do not rewrite previous sections of your
paper. The key here is to SUMMARIZE your findings based on the evidence you gathered and
understood from the sources you investigated. Make sure to end your concluding paragraph(s)
with a persuasive statement.
[Leave this space intentionally blank]
HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS
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References
Affordable Care Act, Volume Source § section number (2010). Retrieved from
http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/law/index.html
Tietelbaum, J.B., & Wilensky, S.E. (2013). Essentials of health policy and law. (2nd ed.).
Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
…
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