HECON4220 – Paying Providers of Health Care

Schedule, syllabus and examination date

Course content

This course aims at giving the students knowledge of the basic theories and models of economic incentives in the field of payment schemes / revenue schemes for health care providers (GPs and hospitals).These models are important tools for the understanding and discussion of central parts of health policy. Hence, the course aims at giving the students knowledge that enables them to contribute to the discussion of health policy issues both at the micro and the macro levels.

Learning outcome

The course is about the economic incentives in the various types of payment schemes / revenue schemes for health care providers (GPs and hospitals). The characteristics of the schemes will be considered from the perspective of the provider, from the perspective of the patient, from the perspective of the payer (insurer) and from the social perspective.

Knowledge

This course will provide knowledge about:

  • Classifications of health systems in terms of organizational and financial links between insurer, provider and patient
  • Theory of characteristics of payment schemes when there is asymmetric information about cost, quality and patient severity between the provider and the insurer
  • Description of revenue systems for hospitals and their characteristics both from the private and the social point of view
  • Description of payment systems for (private) physicians and their characteristics both from the private and the social point of view
  • The role of waiting lists in rationing health care

Skills

The course aims at providing you skills to:

  • Model characteristics of payment schemes when there is asymmetric information about cost, quality and patient severity between the provider and the insurer
  • Model revenue systems for hospitals and their characteristics both from the private and the social point of view
  • Model  payment systems for (private) physicians and their characteristics both from the private and the social point of view
  • Model the role of waiting lists in rationing health care

Admission

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Prerequisites

Recommended previous knowledge

Recommended previous knowledge

Students should have knowledge in math corresponding to ECON2200 - Matematikk 1/Mikro 1 (MM1). There will be organized an elective week course in math at the start of the semester.

Overlapping courses

5 credits overlap with HME4302 – Health Economics (discontinued)

Teaching

Teaching will be provided predominantly by the lecturer but time is also allocated for discussion.

Access to teaching

A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.

Examination

Written examination.

Grading

The Board at the University of Oslo has decided to introduce detailed guidelines for all examinations, which take place at the University. The description of the grading should be clear and transparent. This is done to ensure alignment between learning outcomes, assignments, and grading. The Faculty of Medicine has developed a web page with information regarding exams and the grading procedures (norwegian version

 

Digital examination

The written examination is conducted in the digital examination system Inspera. You will need to familiarize yourself with the digital examination arrangements in Inspera.

Read more about written examinations using Inspera.

Examination support material

No examination support material is allowed.

Language of examination

For students at Eu-HEM: English

For students at HEPAM: The problem set will be given in English. Answers can be given in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Grading

The Board at the University of Oslo has decided to introduce detailed guidelines for all examinations, which take place at the University. The description of the grading should be clear and transparent. This is done to ensure alignment between learning outcomes, assignments, and grading. The Faculty of Medicine has developed a web page with information regarding exams and the grading procedures (norwegian version).

Explanations and appeals

Resit an examination

For HEPMA students:

For Eu-HEM students:

An EU-hem student cannot present her or himself for the examination in a course more than two times. There will be held re-sits for EU-hem students who have failed an exam or who have legitimate absence (usually illness) in January and August. If you are entitled to a re-sit you must contact the student advisor via email no longer than one week after the result of the exam has been published.

Withdrawal from an examination

It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.

Special examination arrangements

Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.

Evaluation

The course is subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students to participate in a more comprehensive evaluation.

Facts about this course

Credits
5
Level
Master
Teaching
Every spring
Examination
Every spring
Teaching language
English