LI Course
CE Hours: 3 contact hours

Partnership: N/A

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this course is to increase professional knowledge of current research findings about the FUNDAMENTALS of the Health as Human Capital approach. The course includes findings on access, services, cost and quality of health care delivery and consumption and personal responsibility for health and well being. Health as Human Capital is an overview of health needs and service delivery without the usual limits, barriers or other borders to understanding the comprehensive nature of health related choices that affect every aspect of personal and professional life. All professionals in practice, education, policy and research related to health care are invited to participate in a discussion of the demand and supply side of health care delivery issues experienced daily. This discussion is based, in part, on the traditional compensation, wage, benefits and incentives policies and practices in US business and industry. Research suggests that many of these traditional approaches may make health LESS valuable in the workplace and community. This course will review the Nobel Prize winning basis of approaching health and well being as Human Capital assets, and report on current and on-going studies that demonstrate which policies and practices increase health care efficiencies and effectiveness in all settings. In this course, participants will be asked to expand concepts embodied in the current US health care system and consider the following theories and research findings: 1) the Human Capital model as delineated in the Nobel Prize winning research that integrates models of economics, social science and health care; 2) the Health as Human Capital model and the research which further refines the integral nature of health and well being in human choice; 3)basic economic and biosocial principles on which the US health care market is built and the latest findings on the efficiencies and effectiveness of current policies and practice; 4) the nature of information exchanged in health care and the need for improved information which is both integrated and shared; 5)the limits and barriers presented by problematic information that is asymmetrical, inaccurate and incomplete; and 6) contemporary paradigm shifts in health care, human resources and employee benefits from traditional models to a human capital approach. Course planners and presenters include physician, nurse and methodology researchers in Health as Human Capital who hold academic appointments and who continue to publish research findings.

Session Objectives: At the end of the course participants will be able to: 1) define human capital and list its three components; 2) using Milton Friedman's model, list the four kinds of spending which provide incentives for health care and health behavior choices; 3) list two kinds of problematic health information and provide one example of each; 4) describe two ways in which the US Public Health approach exemplifies the paradigm shift from traditional models to the Human Capital Model.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing