essay 33

Assignment #3 Issue Brief Paper

The purpose of this paper is to examine a current issue in managed healthcare of interest to you from within the framework of concepts that you have learned in this class. The goal of this assignment is to help make this course more relevant to you and to identify a topic you wish to explore. A successful paper will briefly:

• Present a summary of the current situation associated with your topic/issue. • Describe 1 or 2 challenges associated with your topic. • Describe 1 or 2 key health care players / stakeholders involved in this problem area. • Present and evaluate 1 or 2 possible responses for possible resolution to the challenge and

discuss how the key players might be affected. • Draw a conclusion about the problem and its potential resolution and discuss related areas for

further study. You are encouraged to take a special approach or spin to the topic that is relevant to your career trajectory. For example, you could approach an issue from a management, policy, research/analytic, or public health / clinical or international perspective. The choice is yours, but whatever you do, the paper must be relevant enough to this course’s content area to ensure that it can be handled in the manner outlined above. One of the objectives of this exercise is to allow you to delve into the vast literature in this area. In all cases you should start with the course resources including “additional” readings, suggested monographs, and course web-links. You should identify some key literature on this topic, and your paper should draw on the evidence. However, this exercise is not meant to be an in-depth literature review, rather you should use the literature to help you understand and frame the issue. Format Requirements:

• The paper should clearly indicate its goal and the course constructs it will explore. • 3-5 pages in length, double-spaced, with normal font and margins. • You should cite a modest number of references (7-12) that in most cases will include, at least:

Some references from the “additional” or “suggested monograph” reading list; Some peer-reviewed articles you found on your own; and Some material you found on the web. (You should cite the specific URL using the

accepted format). We hope you find this to be a useful and interesting exercise that: (1) helps you synthesize the course material; (2) makes this course more relevant to you; and (3) helps further refine your scholarly writing skills.

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and no re-writes are allowed on the paper. Please schedule an appointment with the Writer’s Studio if you need help with avoiding plagiarism.