Patient Rights Advocate Certificate of Achievement - PRA COA

NARRATIVE: Describe the development of the proposed program, addressing the criteria listed. 

Criteria A.    Appropriateness to Mission (20 points)

1.    Program goals and objectives (Measurable objectives) - The goal and objective of this program is to provide the necessary classes and skills for students who wish to become a Patient Rights Advocate.

2.    Program description - The program is called - Patient Rights Adovocate (PRA). This is an entire new area of law, that of legal rights advocacy. As our parents grow older they need more health care assistance. Many times the health care system is confusing and difficult to understand and navigate. The PRA will help individuals to obtain the best and most reasonable health care. The program consists of six classes (6) - First the student starts with Law 10 and the Introduction to Law. The syllabus will be contextualized withs readings and assignments in health care issues and law. The second class is a new class to our law program, and that is the Fundamentals of Health Care Law. This will introduce the student to Health Care Law issues including Medicare, state regulations, federal and pubic health care programs. The third class is Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Many of the current health care practices and procedures require heatlh care beneficiaries to arbitrate, mediate, and negotiate to obtain services first before filing costly and timely litigation. The PRA needs to be familiar with ADR to be an effective advocate.The fourth course, a new law course, Health Insurance and Managed Care will introduce the student to health insurance. This area is always fraught with problems on coverage, exclusions, etc.  The fifth class, a new class, is Administrative & Statutory Law. To be an effective advocate, one needs to know the current laws, including administrative law, and statutes, along with the ability to analyze new legislation and how it affects the patient, and his/her family. The final, and sixth class, is an existing class, Law 34, Legal Research. This is an essential class since a PRA will need to do legal research on the status of current case and statutory law to be able to properly advocate the position of the patient.  Since both the Intro to Law class and the Legal Research class currently exist in the Law/Paralegal program, the only requirement will be to contextualize the assignments, and readings so they relate to health care and patient advocacy rights'  legal issues. 

3.    Program requirements - a total of 6 classes - 3 units each - total of 18 units - and a Certificate of Acheivement as a Patient Rights Advocate 

4.    Background and rational - Health care costs have skyrocketed. Also because of better health care, people are living longer. The Health Care Industry has boomed in the recent past, and we need to retrain our students to be able to work in this area. 

Criteria B.   Need (20 points)

5.    Identify the problem the program will address (provide documentation) - The program will address the increasing costs of the Health Care Industry and how our aging parents and adults will be able to deal with covering their health care, including treatment, and medications.

6.    Enrollment projections - Currently the Paralegal Program is one of the fastest growing disciplines on campus due to meeting the needs of students by providing online classes. Law classes lend themselves very well to online delivery. This entire PRA Certificate of Achievement (COA) will be provided in an online format. The student will be able to complete all 6 classes within two semesters, and will be able to then jump into the workforce to obtain meaningful employment. This program will allow older students who are recently unemployed to enter the workforce.

7.    Similar programs at other colleges in service area - there are no such current programs at Mission College, or even at other LACCD colleges.

8.    Labor Market Information & Analysis (CTE only; include attachment) - see attached Labor Market Information on the Health Care Industry and Services. 

Criteria C.  Curriculum Standards (20 points)

9.    Course development - Law 10 and 34 will be upated and contextualized. The four other classes which are new need to be written, along with a syllabus, course outline of record, assigments, case studies, reading assignments, textxbooks which are relevant to the course subject and topic. Since all of these classes are law classes, a lawyer who specializes in these areas of law will be paid a stipend to develop the course outline of record. A web spcialist will upload all of the materials online to the moodle course management system to make it available in an online format to the PRA student.

a.    Name course(s) - Intro to Law (Law 10), Fundamentals of Health Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Health Insurance and Managed Care, Administrative & Statutory Law, and Legal Research (Law 34)

10.  Indicate whether Credit or No Credit - see above for names of classes. They are all credit classes - 3 units each.

11.  Development green curriculum - there is no green curriculum integrated into the PRA COA. However, because it will be deliverred entirely online, it will save driving time, costs, fuel, energy, and classroom space which has a favorable "green impact" on our community. 

Criteria D.  Resources (20 points)

12. Facilities and equipment - none required, all classes online

13.  Faculty qualifications and availability - some of our current online law faculty may be used to develop these classes. Also we will obtain lawyers with expertise in their field of law to develop the classes, and they can be trained to deliver the class online. Lawyers all have J.D. degrees and meet the minimum quals to teach law classes. Many lawyers are interested i the area of Public Health and advocacy, and it should be relatively easy to find capable attorneys to both develop and teach these classes online.

14.  Professional expertise needed - legal experts, i.e. trained attorneys in the area of expertise will develop and teach the law classes.

Criteria E. Compliance (20 points)

1.    Based on model curriculum  

2.    Licensing or Accreditation Standards - no licensing required for this Certificate of Completion

---

PROJECT WORK PLAN AND TIMETABLE: In detail show the work plan including activities, responsible individuals, and completion dates, as well as the expected date that the courses(s) or program be implemented. Patient Rights Advocate - Law 10, an 34 which are current classes in the Paralegal Program will be contextualized and updated in Spring 2009. Four new classes will be developed and contextualised -   Fundamentals of Health Law,  Alternative Dispute Resolution, Health Insurance and Managed Care,  and Administrative & Statutory Law These classes will be developed in Spring 2009, along with a course outline of record submitted to the Curriculum Committee, and a syllabus along with contextualized assignments and readings in Health Care. In the Summer of 2009, all 4 new classes of the Patient Rights Advocate will be uploaded to moodle, faculty will have received training to teach online in Spring 2009, and the Patient Rights Advocate Certificate of Completion will be ready to roll out for online classes in the Fall 2009 semester.  

To Summarize, Patient Rights Advocate will be developed in Spring 2009 and delivered online in Fall 2009. 

Class	Spring 2009	Fall 2009
Law 10 - Intro to Law	contextualized	offered online
Law 34 - Legal Research	contextualized	offered online
Fundamentals of Health Law	COR & Syllabus & contextualized (LNC)	offered online
Alternative Disute Resolution (ADR)	COR & Syllabus & contextualized (LRA)	offered online
Health Insurance & Managed Care	COR & Syllabus & contextualized (LNC)	offered oniline
Admin. & Statutory Law	COR & Syllabus & contextualized (LRA/LNC)	offered oniline

 

** also being developed in Leglislative Research Advocate (LRA)

** also being developed in Legal Nurse Consultant (LNC)