ALBANY STATE UNIVERSITY

ALBANY, GEORGIA

MASTER OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM

 

COURSE SYLLABUS

 

Course Title:                            Health Care Policy and Politics

Course Number:                      PADM 5791

Course Credits:                       3 Semester Hours

Semester Offered:                   Spring Semester, 2010

Class Meetings:                       Wednesdays 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Location:                                 as announced

Instructor:                               Dr. Bruce Neubauer, Simmons, Room 307

                                                229-430-4872, bruce.neubauer@asurams.edu

Office Hours:                          Daily 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and by appointment.

 

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS

 

Health Care Politics and Policy in America by Kant Patel and Mark E. Rushefsky.

Published by M.E. Sharpe; 3 edition (April 30, 2006)

 

CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

This course deals with contemporary health-care policies and politics. The course includes discussions of the current crisis in health costs and proposed solutions. A Health Administration and Policy concentration requirement. An MPA elective.

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

 

The objectives of this course offering are for the student to understand public administration from as action theory perspective and to gain insights into relationships and potentials regarding the concepts of bureaucracy, democracy and service oriented architectures.

 

CLASS ATTENDANCE POLICY

 

Class attendance is mandatory at Albany State University.  The ASU attendance policy states that: “All students are expected to be in class on time for all class meetings.  Attendance begins the first day of class and all students are expected to remain in class for the entire class period unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor.  Absenteeism cannot exceed the credit hours for the course.  This means if a class meets two times per week, a student cannot miss class more than two times during the semester without suffering a substantial penalty.  Excessive absences may result in the instructor lowering the grade earned by one letter grade, e.g. “A” to “B” or “D” to “F”.  Students should contact the instructor in advance regarding any foreseen instances of absence, tardiness, or early departure.  Students must provide valid documentation by the next class meeting for excused absence.

 

CLASS AND COURSE CANCELLATION/MODIFICATION POLICY

 

The instructor reserves the right to make modifications to the course syllabus and requirements that are in the best interest of the learning environment.  Students will be notified in a timely manner of any such modifications in class and on the course Web site.  In the event a class meeting needs to be cancelled, the instructor will make effort to notify students via email or telephone.  The topics missed during this class will be rescheduled or an independent class assignment given.

 

SEXUAL HARRASSMENT STATEMENT

 

Albany State University does not condone sexual harassment.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT

 

Albany State University is an equal opportunity agency of the State of Georgia and as such does not discriminate against students on the basis of race, national origin, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or family status.

 

DISABILITY AND ACCESS STATEMENT

 

Albany State University offers the Disability Student Services Program to ensure equal opportunity education to all students with disabilities.  All eligible students with disabilities must have equal access to student programs, facilities, activities, and services.  Students may contact the ASU Disability Student Services Program at (229) 430-4667 for appropriate disclosure and accommodation procedures.

 

CLASSROOM STANDARDS

 

Students are to adhere to all university policies on attendance, punctuality, make up tests, plagiarism/cheating, withdrawal from class, incomplete grades and final examinations. Failure to participate in the course plus failure to formally withdraw as per University policies and schedules will result in a grade of F.  Please refer to the student handbook, graduate catalog, and any departmental and program guidelines.  In class, respectful and professional conduct is required towards all.  Use of cell phones and ringing of cell phones and pagers in the classroom are not allowed. As per University policies, children, infants and other persons not enrolled in the course are not allowed to attend classes.  Audio and/or video recordings of class sessions are not permitted.  Students may not sell notes of class presentations.  A grade of Incomplete will not be given except as intended by University policies.  An Incomplete will only be given if the student is otherwise passing the course at the end of the semester and has one assignment that cannot be completed during the semester for reasons beyond the student's control.  I do not consider failure to complete the term project to be the basis of an Incomplete grade because the assignment is known from the first day of class.

 

UNIVERSITY'S COMMUNICATIONS POLICY STATEMENT

 

“ASU RAMmail account is the university’s official means of electronic communication with students. Students are required to use the ASU website (www.asurams.edu) and RAMmail for important university’s official information on financial aid, current class schedule, registration holds, account balances, etc. In order to communicate with students by other means as needed, each student is asked to provide the university with his/her current telephone number(s) and mailing address via BannerWeb.“

 

QEP PARTICIPATION

 

This course is a QEP (Quality Enrichment Program) writing enhanced course.  The University's QEP initiative is intended to encourage and support the use of innovative writing assignments across the entire campus.  Selected writing assignments in this course may be reviewed by others who are administering the QEP program.  We may be asked to complete some surveys or other work for the QEP program as a part of our learning experiences together.  There may be some in-class writing assignments associated with the QEP initiative that may not be included in the calculation of the course grade.  Questions regarding the QEP program can be addressed to Dr. Joyce Cherry.  The spirit of our QEP program is that writing takes many forms including opportunities to use emerging Web 2.0 applications being made available by Google and other companies.  You each may be asked to get a free Google e-mail account in order for us to be able to use one or more of the new technologies that Google is making available for discussion forums and other forms of collaborative writing.

 

 

STUDENT EVALUATION AND FINAL GRADE

 

There is an opportunity to earn 1000 points in the course.  Course grades will be based upon the following translation of numeric scores to letter grades.  Please also see "Class Attendance Policy" section above.  Your course grade may be reduced as a result of the frequency and duration of your attendance. 

 

For each of five online discussion forums each student must make at least one original post and at least two additional posts in response to other students' original posts.  Each post must be substantial.  It must contain meaningful and interesting content that has the potential to be instructive to other students.  Each post is to be written in a formal style.  Posts will be graded based upon both content and correct expression.  Posts submitted after the due date on the course calendar will not be graded for credit.


A         900 to 1000 points
B         800 to 899 points
C         700 to 799 points
D         600 to 699 points
F          < 600 points

 

Percentage

Points of 1000

Midterm Examination

25%

250

Online Discussion Forum 1

10%

100

Online Discussion Forum 2

10%

100

Online Discussion Forum 3

10%

100

Online Discussion Forum 4

10%

100

Online Discussion Forum 5

10%

100

Final Examination

25%

250

 

Given the nature of course content the two examinations will be primarily or entirely composed of essay questions.  A higher grade on the final examination will substitute for a lower grade on the midterm examination.  The final is comprehensive.  The final is not optional.  The substitution of grades does not work the other way around. 

 

REVISIONS TO SYLLABUS AND/OR COURSE CALENDAR

 

As instructor I reserve the right to make reasonable changes in the syllabus and course calendar with appropriate notice. The current syllabus for this course will be available on the course website.  Revisions to this syllabus and/or the course calendar will be announced in class, with appropriate notice, and will be reflected in the edition of the syllabus and the calendar available on the web.