Health Policy and Management (MPA)

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Program Description

How can we improve healthcare access and quality while reducing costs? What connections exist between community health and factors like housing, transportation, and education? This NYU MPA program offers a unique opportunity to delve into health policy and management, including the crucial ways in which they intersect. 

With diverse populations and real-world challenges at your doorstep in NYC, you’ll gain practical skills and insights, preparing you to take on the most challenging issues in any healthcare environment.

Program Highlights

  • Convenience & Flexibility. Our program offers flexible scheduling for both full-time and part-time students, with start terms available in both the Fall and Spring. Full-time students who begin in the Fall can complete the program in as little as two years. Part-time students typically finish in three to four years.
  • Distinguished Faculty. Learn from premier scholars in various disciplines, including economics, finance, management, political science, law, planning, and healthcare. These highly-accomplished industry leaders will prepare you to effectively address issues across sectors and policy arenas.
  • Real-World Experience. A year-long capstone project is the pinnacle of your graduate experience, offering an opportunity to apply your skills and knowledge to real-world challenges. Collaborating with peers and expert faculty mentors, you'll take on pressing issues facing healthcare today.
  • Tangible Career Outcomes. MPA graduates work along the healthcare continuum, government agencies, nonprofits, international organizations, corporate social responsibility departments, and a multitude of other sectors. That includes organizations such as the American Red Cross, Deloitte, Manatt Health, APCO Worldwide, Ernst & Young, Everytown for Gun Safety, NY Green Bank, United Nations, and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Specializations

The Health Policy and Management MPA offers the following specializations:

Health Finance

The Health Finance specialization has two sub-specializations:

Health Financial Management

The Health Financial Management specialization prepares students to organize and interpret financial information as the basis of decision-making.

You’ll study financial and managerial accounting, financial statements, business plans, budgeting, capital planning, cost accounting, managerial control, working capital management, and payment systems.

Financial managers measure the flow of funds into and out of the organization, plan for investments in buildings and new technology, and forecast future surpluses and deficits for the organization as a whole and its departments. As a financial manager, you’ll work closely with other professionals—accountants, administrators, computer programmers, records managers, and planners—whose decisions have an impact on the organization’s financial status and who rely on your skills and advice.

Health Public Finance

The Health Public Finance specialization gives students the concepts and skills needed for careers that focus on the financial aspects of healthcare policy and the healthcare delivery system. You’ll take courses in public expenditure analysis, social insurance programs, taxation, and debt financing, among others.

Health public finance positions are located in every sector, and many graduates move between positions during their careers. They might be budget officers and analysts, consultants, finance directors, grant managers, program auditors, financial analysts, bond raters, investment bankers, and bond insurance underwriters.

Health Policy Analysis

The Health Policy Analysis specialization prepares you to develop and evaluate strategies to improve the efficiency of the healthcare delivery system.

As a policy analyst, you may work in a government agency responsible for regulating and financing health services, or for an organization that provides healthcare services, a nonprofit service organization, a professional association, or a foundation. You might be responsible for developing and analyzing data to support policies, assessing new healthcare initiatives using cost-benefit analysis, evaluating programs, analyzing implementation, and developing formal health plans to anticipate future needs for healthcare resources.

This specialization will teach you to develop policy analysis skills, including evaluation design, descriptive and multivariate statistics, program implementation analysis, policy formation assessment, and cost-benefit analysis.

Health Services Management

Our mission is to prepare individuals for leadership roles in healthcare organizations. Our graduates apply their knowledge and skills to make evidence-based decisions that create high-quality, cost-effective healthcare organizations, and that promote health equity and population health.  We seek to recruit students who are diverse and who are early-career working professionals.  Though most of our students are from the Northeast, we aim for representation from across the U.S.  Drawing on a faculty of prominent scholars and practitioners, we deliver a curriculum that emphasizes core competencies and integrates academic coursework and practical experience. Our location in New York City enables students to gain valuable work experience while enrolled in our Program.  Program graduates advance or launch their careers in a variety of organizations in the healthcare field.

Topics include design and control in health organizations, management of service operations, personnel and human resources management, information systems, marketing, and strategic planning.

International Policy and Management

The International Policy and Management specialization in the Health Policy and Management program ("International Health") prepares students to work worldwide in a variety of health settings and in diverse cultures.

You'll learn how health institutional structures and managerial processes vary around the world and gain a comparative interdisciplinary foundation that bridges cutting-edge conceptual thinking, critical analytical techniques, and concrete health management skills. And you'll graduate ready to appreciate and respond to the critical challenges of implementing complex health policies and programs in varying contexts.

Admissions

Admission to the MPA program requires the following:

  • Online Application
  • Essays
  • Resume
  • Letters of Recommendation
  • Transcripts
  • Standardized Test Scores
  • Application Fee

See MPA Application Checklist for additional admission requirements and instructions specific to this program.

International Applicants should review the International Applicant Checklist for a complete and comprehensive list of application requirements and instructions.

Dual-Degree Options

You can earn the Health Policy and Management MPA alongside a second NYU graduate degree in one of the dual-degree programs listed below. Please note that entry to a dual-degree program requires separate application and admission to each participating school.