Healthcare MBA Thesis

Running head: HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS 1

HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS 8

Health Policy Analysis Comment by Sarah J. Hammill: Change to the title of your thesis.

Your Complete Name

Florida International University

MAN6974: HCMBA Thesis

Abstract

The abstract is optional. If you are going to include it, then it goes on page 2 by itself. Start on page 3 with the Problem Statement. The abstract should be about 250 words and is a summary of your health policy analysis! We don’t want to read an abstract of an article you found on your topic. Comment by Sarah J. Hammill: If you are going to include your abstract, be sure to read it over for grammar and sentence structure issues. The Writing Coach doesn’t review abstracts in the final thesis because they are graded separately.

Problem Statement Comment by Sarah J. Hammill: This section can simply be the problem statement question. It should not be a yes/no question. It shouldn’t be too broad. Your problem statement question guides your entire paper. Everything must relate back to your problem statement question. This can be the toughest part of your paper. It is normal to modify your problem statement question as you write the other parts of the paper.

Make sure to write clear and concise sentences. Avoid writing wordy and lengthy 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 African-American 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

manageable. Make sure NOT to offer any solutions in this section of your analysis. Avoid 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 Comment by Sarah J. Hammill: Use subheadings. I recommend that the stakeholders be your subheadings. Discuss the issues (legal, political, practical, and economic) that are important to each stakeholder.

Similar to the preceding Background section, the content of the Landscape section is two-fold: 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.

Options Comment by Sarah J. Hammill: Use subheadings. Option 1… Option 2… etc. Discuss the pros and cons of each option. This section should be detailed. It is the heart of your paper.

The Background and Landscape sections serve as the preamble to this policy analysis and puts the research problem in context. The options section is the heart of your paper. It is the analysis and should be detailed. Each option should be weighted equally. Be sure to use the factors in box 3.2 in analyzing each option (Tietelbaum & Wilensky, 2013, p. 260).

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. When analyzing each option consider the following:

· Cost: How much does each option cost?

· Cost-Benefit Analysis: Cost versus the value of each option.

· Political Feasibility: Are the options viable?

· Legal Implications: Are the options legal? What are the ramifications?

· Administrative Ease: How difficult would each option be to implement?

· Fairness: Does each option treat individuals affected fairly?

· Timeliness: Can each option be implemented in a timely reasonable fashion?

· Targeted Impact: Does each option actually target the problem/population involved (Tietelbaum & Wilensky, 2013, p. 260).

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.

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.

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References Comment by Sarah J. Hammill: These references are for illustrative purposes only. References always start on a clean page. Appendices go after the references. References must be in APA. Include EVERY source you have cited in your paper. Include ONLY those sources you have cited in your paper (do not include those sources you have read but did not cite in the text of your paper). In-text citations must match your reference list and vice versa. Your references and in-text citations MUST match! If you have an in-text citation, it must be listed here and vice versa. It must be listed the exact same way. Do not include CDC in text and spell out the acronym here. Spell out the acronym in text and here. They must be identical! Use your APA Manual and APA OWL Purdue (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html) and other resources listed in your W-2-L course.

Affordable Care Act, Volume Source § section number (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/law/index.html

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. (2020, February 8). Youth risk behavior surveillance

data tracking: How risky behavior impacts decision-making. Retrieved from

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/index.htm.

Hammill, S.J. (2019). Essential APA writing. (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett

Learning.

Weismann, M. & Ganske, S. (2019, October 15). Health policy analysis writing: Evidence-

based research is fundamental. Journal of HCMBA, 16(3), 15-21. doi: 10.1245x.3445

Weismann, M., Ganske, S., & Hammill, S.J. (2019, October 15). Capstone students will write

great healthcare policy analysis theses. Journal of HCMBA at FIU, 12(4), 19-31. Retrieved from http://library.fiu.edu/bestplaceoncampus

Appendix Comment by Sarah J. Hammill: Appendices go after your references. You need to explain your appendices in the text of your paper.