Written specifically for RN to BSN and second-degree nursing programs, the book is the only such text grounded in nurses own understanding and experience. Concise and practical, it supports foundational concepts with real-life case studies and clinical applications and reinforces information with interactive quizzes and multimedia materials. The books content fulfills one of the AACNs key Essentials of Baccalaureate Education. Written by a health economics and policy expert, former dean, and award-winning teacher, the text synthesizes the vast scope of health economics to create an easily understandable guide for nursing action from bedside to boardroom.

Table of Contents

• About the Author
• Foreword - Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• SECTION I. THE CONTEXT OF HEALTH CARE AND HEALTH CARE REFORM
• Preface
• 1. What Is Health Economics and Why Is It Important to Nurses?
• Theoretical Economic Approaches
• Social Determinants of Health
• How Economics Differs From Financing and Reimbursement
• Insurance Industry Changes Since the Passage of the ACA
• Conclusion
• 2. A Story of Unintended Consequences: How Economic and Policy Solutions Create New Challenges
• The Influence of the Flexner Report
• Early Hospitals
• Social Reform Addressing Unintended Consequences of Employer-Based Insurance
• Attempts to Change Finanical Incentives to Contain Costs
• The ACA and New (and Renewed) Payment Models
• 3. Payment Reform
• From Volume to Value: Payment Models That Move Away From Fee-for-Service Reimbursement
• Nursing Roles Within Emerging Payment Models
• SECTION II. HEALTH CARE ECONOMICS: AN OVERVIEW
• Preface
• 4. How Health Care Markets Differ From Classic Markets
• What Does It Mean to Bear the Consequences of Financial Decision Making?
• What Ideas Help Us Understand Overtreatment? The Example of Small-Area Variation and Supplier-Induced Demand
• 5. The Role of Information in Health Care Markets and Decision Making
• The Need for Information
• Data on Quality
• Big Data
• Meaningful Use
• Information Science, Quality Science, and Data
• 6. Market Entry, Exit, and Antitrust Law
• Entering and Exiting the Market
• Merge, Consolidate, or Stand Alone: An Overview of Antitrust Law
• Is Consolidation the Same as Integration?
• SECTION III. ETHICS AND ECONOMICS IN AN AGE OF REFORM
• Preface
• 7. What Is Ethinomics?
• Can Economics Coexist With the Intention of “Doing Good”?
• Social Determinants of Health, Health Disparities, Ethics, and Economics
• Moral Conduct of Nurses in Contemporary Complexity
• 8. Additional Models to Guide Ethical Decision Making
• Consequence-Based Decision Making
• Deontology: Rule-Based Decision Making
• Virtue Ethics
• Using These Models in Clinical Decision Making
• Moral Distress
• Ethics of Reform and Cost Containment
• Sustainability Is an Ethical Issue
• Nurses on Boards and in Politics
• SECTION IV. PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER: USING YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF HEALTH FINANCE, ECONOMICS, AND ETHICS TO INFLUENCE HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
• Preface
• 9. Governance and Organizational Type
• Role of the Board of Trustees
• Types of Hospitals and Health Systems
• Navigating Governance–Management Boundaries
• The Relationship Between Organizational Structure and Organizational Values
• The Role of Board Committees
• The Sarbanes–Oxley Act
• 10. Building Skills for Board Membership
• Zeal, Organizational Fit, and Philanthophy
• Types of Board Appointments
• What a Governing Board Is Not
• Other Types of Boards
• Building the Skill Set for Board Membership
• Next Steps
• 11. Applying Health Economics to Influence Health Care Through State and Federal Policy Formation
• Ways of Influence
• How to Contact Policymakers
• Maintaining a Connection with Policymakers to Influence Health and Health Care
• Overcoming Impediments to Involvement
• 12. Epilogue: Reflections on Living and Leading in a Changing Nursing World
• Tell Me One More Time: What Does All This Financing, Economics, and Policy Have to Do With Nursing?
• How to Retain and Expand on What You Have Learned
• Appendix: Quiz Answers
• Glossary