Health Care Management Student Takes Second Place in ACHE Competition
Steven Spiehler, a senior from Slidell, La., majoring in health care management at The University of Alabama\’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, has won second place in the prestigious Richard J. Stull Student Essay Competition sponsored by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).
This win marks the sixth time that a student from the health care management program has placed in one of the top three positions in the past nine years, said Dr. Eric S. Williams, associate professor of health care management.
The purpose of the competition is to stimulate and demonstrate the ability of future healthcare executives to identify and describe important issues and developments in their chosen profession. Top winners in the graduate and undergraduate categories receive monetary awards.
Spiehler will present his paper in Chicago in March during the annual ACHE Congress.
His paper, titled Repairing the Individual Health Insurance Market, examines the importance of the individual market, details the inequities between employer-based and individual health insurance - cost, benefits, taxes, and regulation - and presents four independent, political solutions to the issue.
The competition is open to students enrolled in either a graduate or undergraduate U.S. or Canadian health administration program that is a participant in the ACHE Higher Education Network. Essays must be the product of one individual, and not have been published previously.
Essays are subjected to a thorough review by panels composed of practitioners and faculty. The winning essays receive $3,000; their programs receive $1,000. The second and third place essays $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.