Who Should Apply to the MHCDS Program?

Physicians who want to take on greater leadership roles in their organization and need additional skills (business skills) to compete for those jobs, benefit greatly from the MHCDS program. To lead in today's health care industry, having excellent clinical skills is not sufficient. Physician leaders must also know finance, economics, health policy, data analytics, and a host of other management and leadership skills that are not taught in medical school in order to effectively lead their organizations.

The MHCDS degree supports health care administrators who understand the finance and operational levers of an organization and want a deeper understanding of how to develop and support the best care for patients. In order to advance their careers, executives must understand how to link the clinical, financial, and operational strategies of the organization in order to thrive in the current environment.

Health insurance executives are no longer simple gatekeepers, achieving profits by denying care or claims. Industry leaders are rapidly evolving into true partners with providers in order to achieve their shared goals of better patient outcomes and lower costs. Understanding the impact of economic incentives and how to align them with physicians and administrators in provider organizations is a key benefit of MHCDS to leaders at payer organizations of all sizes.

Policy makers at the state and national level benefit not only from the structured learning but also from the real world perspective (or unintended consequences) they can gain from the physicians, administrators, and payers who live with policy decisions. Policy leaders are besieged every day by lobbyists and other influencers seeking benefit for their narrow causes. Understanding how policy truly unfolds on the ground makes policy makers more effective in parsing those narrow benefits from the broader ones that benefit all citizens.

Health care leaders from other sectors including Health IT, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health law, and consultants all benefit from the MHCDS program as well. Advanced knowledge and skills from the MHCDS curriculum are one key benefit, but the granular knowledge of how health care delivery, often their customer base, really works as well as a broad network of leaders from that sector is a differentiator.