A quartet of students in the USC Price School’s Master of Health Administration program took first place in a rigorous contest to develop a plan to resuscitate an ailing health system.
Seva Patel, Ana Majer, Evan Holly, and Amrit Singh Chawla took top honors in the 2025 ACHE Statewide College Bowl graduate case competition for their proposal to address chronic business challenges facing a fictitious hospital and its independent physicians’ association. The students competed against 11 other California universities, with Cal State Northridge and UCLA earning second- and third-place awards, respectively.
“According to the judges, it was an easy decision to reach, with the USC Price team being the clear winners,” said Philip Dalton, Professor of Practice of Health Policy and Management. “This is the second year in a row that USC has taken first place in this competition.”
Dalton noted that the judges extended an invitation for the team to seek employment upon graduation.
The winning contestants proposed the following solutions to help the health system:
- fostering shared goals and accountability across the physician network;
- applying for ACO REACH, a federal program that encourages healthcare providers to coordinate care for Medicare beneficiaries, especially those from underserved communities;
- hosting community health screenings;
- launching an oncology infusion clinic; and
- negotiating bundled payment models, which requires engaging with payers to set a fixed reimbursement for an entire episode of care.
The annual contest was sponsored by Cope Health Solutions, which provided the case study and judges in the final round.
