HPA 57Consumer Choices in Health Care

3 credits · Health Policy and Administration · Penn State

HPA 57 is designed to provide students with an understanding of the breadth of decisions related to health and health care in the United States. HPA 57 introduces students to the consumers' role in health related decisions, including assessing health risks, health benefits, service choices, and end-of-life care. The growth in available health care information resources, the expansion of for-profit medical care, and increasing cost pressure are transforming the role of the health care consumers from passive recipients to active participants in many health care decisions. The main goal of this course is to educate students to become knowledgeable health care consumers and providing them with opportunities to learn how to gather, analyze, and synthesize information about health and health care to make sound health care choices. Students will learn practical information, key terminology and where/how to find reliable, up-to-date information on different sectors of the health care system (e.g. physicians, hospitals, commercial and public health insurance, mental health, long-term care).