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Health policy is never static, but it’s been quite a while since the field has seen as much change and uncertainty as we see now. From the perspectives of people now working in healthcare management and those whose business is to educate and prepare the next generation of professionals, it is not unreasonable to liken the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to the 1965 enactment of Medicare in terms of how dramatically it will change the healthcare landscape in the United States. And while changes will be significant, just what shape they will take remains unknown in many respects. The reform bill is large and complex, and most details of implementation have yet to be worked out. For example, how will ACOs take shape? How can value-based payment formulas be designed so they are effective in a range of situations, e.g., rural areas and urban centers? These and many other questions make health policy a moving target at the moment. Moreover, the constitutional challenges add layers of uncertainty, as do the 2012 elections. Where does that leave educators charged with preparing students for the years to come? AUPHA recently took a look at how the ACA is affecting the way members are teaching health policy. Along with attending the Winston Health Policy Symposium in April, we had an opportunity to interview several AUPHA faculty who have recently been thinking and writing about this very topic: Elizabeth Berzas, PhD, Assistant Professor and Program Director, Our Lady of the Lake College; Paige Powell, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Services Administration, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Keith J. Mueller, PhD, Gerhard Hartman Professor and Head, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Iowa; and Karen M. Volmar, PhD, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Administration, Executive Director of the MHA Program, Penn State University. [more]

AUPHA would like to thank the Leadership Development Committee for its work on developing the 2012 Board Slate. The following slate, along with the proposed Bylaws amendments, has been sent to the AUPHA Full Member Programs for voting.  [more]

The objective of the DAVID A. WINSTON HEALTH POLICY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM is to increase the number and quality of individuals trained in healthcare policy at the state and federal level by awarding deserving health policy students financial support to further their education. [more]

Hello, AUPHA Colleagues! I hope this newsletter finds you and your families enjoying a great Spring! I have recently returned from a deployment with “America’s CSH”, the 47^th Combat Support Hospital (CSH), as the Deputy Commander for Administrative for the Medical Task Force and Officer-in-Charge of the hospital facility at Contingency Operating Base Adder in Southern Iraq. Our facility was the last combat support hospital in Iraq supporting Operation New Dawn. The unit Soldiers performed with excellence through the blistering summer heat (140 degrees!) and into the last cold days of convoys and flights back to Kuwait. One interesting element of our deployment was that the 47 [more]