IHP 620 is SNHU’s Economic Principles of Healthcare course. It centers on economic principles applied to health care: uncertainty and information problems, demand and price responsiveness, cost-sharing and deductibles, adverse selection and moral hazard, prices and international spending comparisons, value-based insurance design, cost-effectiveness and QALYs and payment reforms such as accountable care and bundled payments. Every module below opens a full sample paper or takes a free request for one; searches like "ihp 620 module 3", "IHP620 sample paper" and "IHP 620 milestone example" land on this page.
What IHP 620 is really about
IHP 620 is an economics course in the SNHU MS Healthcare Administration program, and its rubrics reward reasoning over jargon. Graders look for economic concepts defined correctly and applied to a specific decision, claims backed by empirical studies rather than theory alone, attention to incentives and unintended effects, numbers worked through clearly and recommendations that weigh efficiency against equity.
Samples on this shelf follow a composite financial planning manager at Granite Peak Health, a Mountain West system with 9,800 employees whose self-insured health plan covers about 21,000 people and costs $142 million a year, rising about 8% annually. Across the term, the manager examines why health care markets differ, studies cost-sharing, frames the plan's cost problem, weighs selection and moral hazard, compares national spending, evaluates benefit designs, runs a cost-effectiveness analysis, assesses payment models and writes a final analysis. The manager and system are illustrative.
What IHP 620’s modules ask for
Across ten modules, IHP 620 typically asks for discussions of health care markets and spending, papers on demand, market failure and cost-effectiveness, three milestones that frame an economic problem, compare options and assess payment models, a final economic analysis and a reflection.
Where students lose points in IHP 620
The most common IHP 620 deduction is economic vocabulary used without economic reasoning: elasticity named but never estimated, moral hazard blamed for every cost. The second is a recommendation that ignores how people and providers respond to incentives. Graders also mark down theory with no empirical evidence, calculations without steps and analyses that treat cost savings as the only goal. The fix is to define concepts precisely, bring in studies, work the numbers and weigh efficiency with equity.
The IHP 620 drawers
IHP 620 Module 1 Discussion example
An opening discussion post from a composite financial planning manager whose health system's employee plan grows 8% a year. It uses Arrow's classic analysis of uncertainty in medical care, Akerlof's market for lemons and Fisher and colleagues' findings on regional spending variation to explain why ordinary market logic fails in health care and what that means for an employer. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 2 Demand and Cost-Sharing Paper example
A demand and cost-sharing paper estimating what a $2,500 deductible would do to a composite health system's employee plan. It explains price elasticity with the RAND experiment as reviewed by Aron-Dine, Einav and Finkelstein, uses Brot-Goldberg and colleagues' study of a firm that switched to a high-deductible plan and Selby, Fireman and Swain's emergency copayment study, and works out who would bear the change. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 3 Milestone One example
A first milestone that breaks a composite health system's 8% annual employee plan growth into price, use, drug and enrollment effects. It uses Cooper and colleagues' work on commercial hospital prices, Baicker and Chandra's evidence that rising premiums come out of wages and Fisher and colleagues' findings on supply-driven use to frame the problem as one of prices and incentives, not only employee behavior. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 4 Market Failure Paper example
A market failure paper examining a composite health system's proposal to switch to a fixed-dollar contribution across two employee plans. It separates adverse selection from moral hazard using Einav and Finkelstein's graphical account of selection and their review of moral hazard evidence and draws a cautionary lesson from Cutler and Reber's study of the plan spiral at a large university. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 5 Discussion example
A discussion post in which a composite financial planning manager tests the common claim that Americans simply use too much care. It draws on Anderson and colleagues' argument that prices explain the gap, Papanicolas, Woskie and Jha's comparison of the United States with ten high-income countries and Himmelstein, Campbell and Woolhandler's estimate of administrative costs, then connects the findings to the manager's own plan. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 6 Milestone Two example
A Milestone Two comparison of four benefit designs for a composite health system's employee plan: a high deductible, value-based insurance design, reference pricing and in-system steering. It uses Brot-Goldberg and colleagues on deductibles, Chernew, Rosen and Fendrick's case for value-based design, Choudhry and colleagues' trial of free post-heart-attack drugs and Robinson and Brown's reference pricing study. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 7 Cost-Effectiveness Paper example
A cost-effectiveness paper asking whether a composite health system's employee plan should fund a lifestyle diabetes prevention program for 400 employees. It works out cost per case prevented and a three-year plan return with sensitivity analysis, then places the program against Herman and colleagues' lifetime cost-per-QALY estimates, the reference case of Sanders and colleagues' Second Panel and Neumann, Cohen and Weinstein's discussion of thresholds. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 8 Milestone Three example
A Milestone Three assessment of payment models a composite health system's employee plan could use with the providers who treat its members. It weighs shared-savings contracts using McWilliams and colleagues' evaluation of Medicare accountable care organizations and Song and colleagues' study of the Alternative Quality Contract, and bundled payments using Joynt Maddox and colleagues' Medicare findings, then recommends a blended approach. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 9 Final Project example
A final economic analysis of a composite health system's $142 million employee plan that pulls the term's work into one recommendation. It rejects a high deductible using Brot-Goldberg and colleagues' evidence, supports free chronic disease drugs with Choudhry and colleagues' trial, adds reference pricing on the strength of Robinson and Brown and shares savings with primary care as Song and colleagues' commercial contract suggests. Full sample paper, read it free.
IHP 620 Module 10 Journal example
A closing journal in which a composite financial planning manager reflects on moving from spreadsheet thinking to economic reasoning about people. It draws on Arrow's account of why medical care is different, Aron-Dine, Einav and Finkelstein's review of the RAND experiment and Baicker and Chandra's evidence that premiums come out of wages, and names habits for future financial analysis. Full sample paper, read it free.
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Using a IHP 620 sample the right way
Read an IHP 620 sample by checking whether each concept is defined and applied, whether claims rest on empirical studies and whether the numbers are worked step by step. For IHP 620, share the prompt, your economic question and the rubric, and the first custom sample comes back free in 24-48h.
IHP 620 questions, answered
What does IHP 620 cover?
Health care markets and their failures, demand and cost-sharing, insurance, prices and spending, cost-effectiveness analysis and payment reform.
What topic works for the IHP 620 final project?
An economic decision in an organization you know, such as benefit design, pricing, a new service or a payment contract.
What makes a strong IHP 620 paper?
Concepts defined and applied, empirical evidence, calculations shown step by step and recommendations that weigh efficiency and equity.