| Course | HA580 Leading Health Care Transformation With Strategy Integration |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 2 |
| Paper type | Environmental scan |
| Length | About 890 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | Master of Health Administration (MHA) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HA580 Unit 2
Fifty-Four Percent in Medicare Advantage and One Insurer With Forty-Four Percent of It: An Environmental Scan of a Composite Five-Hospital System's Six-County Market, Built So That Every Finding Names the Option It Rules Out, and Two Options Do Not Survive
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HA580: Leading Health Care Transformation With Strategy Integration
Unit 2 Environmental Scan
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The system, its market and every figure are composite and bracketed for the writer's own data; the data sources named are real.
The Options Being Tested
The executive team brought five options to the planning retreat: (1) launch a provider-sponsored Medicare Advantage plan; (2) add [40] inpatient beds at the flagship; (3) accept the dominant insurer's offer of a shared-risk contract; (4) form a joint venture with orthopedic surgeons for an ambulatory surgery center; (5) negotiate a clinical affiliation with an academic system [70] miles away.
Defining the Service Area
Using patient-origin data, the service area is the [41] ZIP codes that produced [80] percent of the system's discharges last year, falling within six counties. Every figure below is drawn for those counties alone, since statewide averages would misstate the local picture.
Findings
Each finding gives the source, the direction, when it bites and the option it affects. Finding 1. Medicare Advantage covers [54] percent of local beneficiaries, up from [41] percent four years ago. Source: CMS monthly enrollment files by county. Direction: rising. Timing: now. Effect: narrows option 2, because studies comparing private and traditional Medicare find lower hospital use among Medicare Advantage enrollees (Curto et al., 2019). Finding 2. One insurer holds [44] percent of local Medicare Advantage members, and the next largest [17] percent. Source: the same files. Direction: stable. Timing: now. Effect: rules out option 1, together with finding 3; a new plan would compete against an entrenched insurer that is also the system's largest payer partner. Finding 3. Starting a plan would require reserves of about [$40] million and [three] to [five] years to reach scale. Source: state insurance department filing requirements and published plan launches. Direction: fixed. Effect: with [151] days of cash and a [0.8] percent margin, the system cannot fund it. Option 1 is ruled out. The insurer that makes a provider-owned plan impossible is the same insurer offering the risk contract. Finding 4. Inpatient days per thousand Medicare beneficiaries in the service area fell [3.1] percent a year over four years. Source: state discharge data. Direction: falling. Timing: continuing. Effect: rules out option 2. New beds would open into falling demand. Finding 5. The academic system has filed a certificate-of-need application for a surgery center in the metro area, with opening expected in about [six] quarters. Source: state certificate-of-need filings. Direction: new threat. Effect: narrows option 4; an orthopedic joint venture must open first to hold local surgeons and patients. Finding 6. The system's negotiated commercial price for joint replacement is [18] percent below the academic system's, according to hospital price transparency files. Direction: advantage. Effect: supports option 4, since a lower-cost site can attract employers and plans. Finding 7. Registered nurse vacancies run at [14] percent. Source: internal data. Direction: persistent. Effect: narrows option 3, since care management requires nurses the system must recruit. Finding 8. The dominant insurer has offered a shared-risk contract with upside-only savings sharing in years one and two and downside risk from year three. Direction: opportunity with a deadline. Effect: supports option 3.
Why Payers Come Before Competitors
The findings are ordered payers first because payer concentration shapes what competitors can do. An insurer with [44] percent of local Medicare Advantage members can steer those members toward particular hospitals and clinics through its networks and its own care management. If the insurer chose to contract with the academic system's new surgery center on favorable terms, the system's orthopedic volume would follow regardless of quality or price. A scan that analyzed competitors first would have treated the academic system as the main threat; read in this order, the insurer's choices matter more than the academic system's, and the system's relationship with that insurer becomes the hinge of the plan.
What the Scan Did Not Find
No new hospital is planned in the service area. Population growth is flat overall but rising [2.4] percent a year among residents over [65], which supports care management and outpatient surgery rather than beds.
Options That Survive
Ruled out: option 1, a provider-sponsored plan, and option 2, bed expansion. Surviving: option 3, the risk contract; option 4, the orthopedic joint venture; and option 5, the academic affiliation, which no finding ruled out but which depends on terms not yet offered.
Market Structure in Context
Health care markets in many regions have consolidated, and concentrated markets tend to bring higher prices without clear gains in quality (Cutler & Scott Morton, 2013). In this market, the concentration that matters most is on the payer side, which shapes how the system can negotiate.
Limits
The scan relies on public data that lag by one to two years and on internal data that may not match other sources. Competitor intentions are inferred from filings, not confirmed. A strategic plan built on this scan should revisit it each year (Ginter et al., 2018).
Conclusion
Two options fall away because the market will not support them. The next unit compares the three that remain.
References
Curto, V., Einav, L., Finkelstein, A., Levin, J., & Bhattacharya, J. (2019). Health care spending and utilization in public and private Medicare. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(2), 302-332. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20170295
Cutler, D. M., & Scott Morton, F. (2013). Hospitals, market share, and consolidation. JAMA, 310(18), 1964-1970. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281675
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations (8th ed.). Wiley.
HA580 Unit 2 instructions, in plain terms
Unit 2 in HA 580 usually asks students to scan the external environment of a health organization and connect findings to strategy. Instructions often require defining the market, examining payers, competitors, regulation, demographics and workforce, citing data sources and explaining implications. Define the service area from where patients actually come from, not a county line, so evidence stays local. Give every finding a source, a direction and a time when it bites. End each finding with the option it supports, narrows or rules out, which is what turns a list of trends into strategy. Order findings deliberately, since payer concentration often shapes what competitors can do. Cite public data and a strategy text in APA style, and state what the scan could not see.
Inside the HA580 Unit 2 example
The sample lists the five options under test, then defines the service area as 41 ZIP codes. Eight findings follow, each ending in an effect on an option, with a margin note on why consequences matter. Medicare Advantage growth narrows bed expansion, insurer concentration and reserve requirements rule out a provider-owned plan, and a highlighted line notes the same insurer is offering the risk contract. Falling inpatient days rule out new beds. A rival surgery center filing narrows the timing for the orthopedic venture. A margin note explains timing in quarters. A section on why payers come before competitors carries a third note. The surviving options, market context, limits and a conclusion close the scan.
Reading the HA580 Unit 2 grading rubric
HA 580 environmental scan rubrics usually award points for a defined market, breadth of factors, credible sources, analysis of implications, connection to strategic options, organization and presentation. Market points go to a service area built from patient data. Breadth points reward payers, competitors, regulation, demographics and workforce. Source points require named, current data. Implication points depend on saying what each finding means. Strategy points go to linking findings to options, including ruling some out. Organization points reward a structure that reflects priority. Scans whose every finding ends in a strategic consequence tend to receive the top grades, since that is what separates analysis from description.
HA580 Unit 2 help: mistakes that cost points
Environmental scans often lose points by listing national trends without showing their local effect, or by gathering facts without saying what they mean for the organization's choices. Others use statewide data for a regional system. Define the service area from patient origin first. For each finding, give the source, direction and timing, then state which option it supports, narrows or rules out. Put payer findings before competitors when payers shape the market. Keep a short section on what the scan did not find or could not confirm. End by naming the options that survive, which hands the next stage of planning a clear starting point.
Get an HA580 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
For the Unit 2 scan, the prompt, the rubric and the organization under study are the inputs, or whichever case the section assigns. Findings are sourced to the service area, each one tied to an option it closes, and the scan ends by naming what survives. Delivery takes 24-48h, and your first custom sample is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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HA580 Unit 2 questions, answered
Where can I find a free HA580 Unit 2 sample paper?
The complete HA580 Unit 2 environmental scan is here, testing five options for a composite system against its six-county market.
Which options does the HA580 Unit 2 scan rule out?
A provider-sponsored Medicare Advantage plan and an inpatient bed expansion.
How should a service area be defined?
From patient-origin data, such as the ZIP codes producing most of an organization's discharges.
Why do payers come before competitors in the scan?
Payer concentration shapes what competitors can do, including where members are steered.
How long is the HA580 Unit 2 scan?
About seven pages built around a findings table.