ABPS Administrative Medicine study plan

Map the continuum of care settings (ambulatory, acute, post-acute, home, telehealth) and diagram referral and patient-flow pathways between them

Compare ownership and governance structures (nonprofit, for-profit, public, integrated delivery networks) and list the incentives each creates for physician leaders

Explain how payer mix, case mix, and service-line composition shape organizational strategy

Summarize the major models of physician-hospital alignment (employment, PSA, IPA, clinically integrated network) and their tradeoffs

Trace the revenue cycle end to end (registration, coding, charge capture, claims, denial management, collections) and identify where physician documentation affects payment

Distinguish fee-for-service, capitation, bundled payments, and shared savings, and compute a simple margin example for each

Interpret core financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow) and calculate operating margin, days cash on hand, and payer mix percentages

Explain cost accounting concepts (direct vs indirect, fixed vs variable, contribution margin) applied to a service line

Analyze how payment reform (value-based, risk-based, site-neutral) changes delivery-system design decisions

Evaluate a capital or program investment using payback period and simple ROI

Explain antitrust and Stark/AKS considerations at a conceptual level as they constrain alignment and referral structures

Draft talking points a physician executive would use to justify a service-line investment to a CFO

Outline the statutory and regulatory hierarchy affecting hospitals and physician practices (licensure, accreditation, reimbursement conditions of participation)

Summarize key federal fraud-and-abuse concepts (False Claims Act, Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark) and give one compliant and one non-compliant scenario for each

Explain EMTALA, HIPAA privacy/security basics, and informed-consent doctrine as operational obligations

Describe the scope and limits of physician peer review protections and medical staff bylaws

Apply a structured improvement framework (PDSA or DMAIC) to a hypothetical patient-safety problem

Distinguish structure, process, and outcome measures and select appropriate measures for a chosen clinical microsystem

Explain root cause analysis, failure mode effects analysis, and just-culture principles in adverse-event review

Identify high-reliability organizing practices and how they translate to daily huddles and safety huddles

Compare leadership styles and situational-leadership approaches, and match each to a physician-leader scenario

Practice giving structured feedback and conducting a difficult conversation using a documented framework

Build a SWOT and a basic strategic plan for a department, including objectives and leading indicators

Explain change-management models and identify stakeholder-mapping and communication tactics for a rollout

Explain EHR architecture, interoperability standards (HL7, FHIR), and health-information-exchange models at a conceptual level

Describe informatics governance, clinical decision support design, and data-security and privacy controls

Outline physician workforce planning: recruitment, credentialing, privileging, onboarding, and retention drivers

Explain compensation models (RVU, salary, blended) and their effect on productivity and burnout

Apply an ethical decision-making framework to a conflict-of-interest and resource-allocation case

Explain fiduciary duty, medical-staff self-governance, and board-level accountability structures

Review all nine domains and self-assess weakest areas against the exam blueprint weights

Complete a timed practice set and analyze missed items by domain