| Course | HA 630 Marketing and Strategic Growth in Healthcare |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 8 |
| Paper type | Marketing plan and forecast |
| Length | About 880 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | MS in Healthcare Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HA 630 Unit 8
$167,000 for 66 More Heart Patients in Year One: The Cardiac Rehabilitation Marketing Plan and Forecast, With a Downside Case and Two Review Points
Student Name
Health Care Administration, Herzing University
HA 630: Marketing and Strategic Growth in Healthcare
Instructor Name
March 5, 2026
$167,000 for 66 More Heart Patients in Year One: The Cardiac Rehabilitation Marketing Plan and Forecast, With a Downside Case and Two Review Points
Executive Summary
The cardiac rehabilitation program requests $167,000 in year one, of which $45,000 is capital, to enroll about 66 more new patients than last year's 164. The plan is expected to lose about $16,000 in year one after depreciation and to contribute about $36,000 a year from year two, when about 88 additional patients a year are expected. In a downside case, year one falls about $71,000 short. Two review points, at months 6 and 12, allow the plan to be cut back before that loss is fully incurred. The larger purpose is clinical: moving local participation from about 21% of eligible patients to about a third within two years, in a region where participation is among the lowest in the country (Ritchey et al., 2020).
Situation, Segments and Position in Brief
About 766 residents of the five-county area become eligible for cardiac rehabilitation each year; the program enrolls 164. Participation falls with distance from the program and with cost sharing, and most eligible patients attend nowhere. The plan targets two segments: patients treated at the regional heart center, most of whom are never referred locally, and patients living 40 minutes or more away. It positions the program as the monitored option close to home for those patients, with reports to referring physicians. It keeps and protects the program's base of patients treated at the hospital itself and defers a heart failure track for a year.
Actions, Owners and Costs
Every action appears on the calendar with its owner and year-one cost. The total reconciles to the request.
| Action | Start | Owner | Year-one cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic referral order set and bedside visits | March | Program director and cardiology section chief | $6,000 |
| Referral liaison at the regional center, half time | April | Program director | $48,000 |
| Primary care outreach, 18 practices quarterly | April | Referral liaison | $4,000 |
| Digital campaign and listing fixes | March to August | Marketing coordinator | $9,000 |
| Early and evening session blocks, half-time exercise physiologist | May | Program director | $38,000 |
| Hybrid program: devices and setup (capital) | July | Program director and information services | $45,000 |
| Hybrid program license, July to February | July | Program director | $9,000 |
| County D partnership agreement and training | June | Vice president of physician services, with counsel | $8,000 |
| Total | $167,000 |
Forecast Assumptions
Written beside the numbers, so each can be challenged. Standard patients attend an average of 24 sessions, as last year's patients did. Blended net revenue per session across the payer mix is $118 and variable cost $22, a contribution of $96 per session and $2,304 per standard patient. Hybrid patients attend 6 center sessions and 18 home sessions; in the base case, home sessions are paid for 60% of hybrid patients, those whose coverage clearly includes the model, giving a contribution of about $1,613 per hybrid patient. About 60% of the sessions of a patient who enrolls in the fourth quarter fall in the same year. Capital is depreciated over three years, $15,000 a year.
Year-One Forecast by Quarter
Incremental new patients above last year's volume, and their contribution in the year.
| Quarter | Standard patients from referral, access and digital | From the partnership | Hybrid patients | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 (March to May) | 5 | 0 | 0 | $11,520 |
| Q2 (June to August) | 12 | 0 | 0 | $27,648 |
| Q3 (September to November) | 15 | 2 | 5 | $47,232 |
| Q4 (December to February) | 18 | 2 | 7 | $34,422 |
| Year one | 50 | 4 | 12 | $120,822 |
Year-One Result and Year Two
Year one: contribution of $120,822 against operating costs of $137,000 ($122,000 of spending other than capital, plus $15,000 of depreciation) gives a loss of about $16,000. That is expected: the liaison and the hybrid program take months to build volume.
Year two, at full run rate: 58 additional standard patients (54 from referral, access and digital work, 4 from the partnership) contribute $133,632, and 30 hybrid patients contribute $48,384, a total of about $182,000. Costs rise to $146,000 with a full year of the hybrid license. The plan contributes about $36,000 in year two, with 88 additional patients a year, most of the way to the three-year goal of 104.
Downside Case
If referral, access and digital work deliver only 60% of their expected patients, the hybrid program enrolls half its target, and no payer covers home sessions, year-one volume falls to about 38 additional patients and contribution to about $66,000. Against the same $137,000 of operating cost, the loss would be about $71,000. The two largest single risks are the liaison failing to win the regional center surgeons' cooperation and home-session payment. Both are visible early, which is why the review points below fall where they do.
Measures, Sources and Reporting
Referrals by source, from the electronic record's referral report, monthly. Share of eligible hospital discharges referred and enrolled, from the record and the program's quality registry, monthly; the program will report these against national performance measures for referral and enrollment (Thomas et al., 2018). Median days from referral to first session, from the scheduling system, monthly. Sessions per patient and share completing 36 sessions, from the program database, quarterly. Digital calls and forms, from call tracking and the intake form, weekly during the campaign. Contribution, from finance, quarterly. Participation by sex, age and race, quarterly, so that growth does not widen the gaps seen nationally (Ritchey et al., 2020).
Review Points
Month 6. If regional center referrals are below 8 a month, the liaison role will be reduced to one day a week and the savings moved to primary care outreach. If digital cost per call exceeds $60, the social flights will stop.
Month 12. If additional enrollment is below 40 patients, the plan will be rebuilt around the channels that worked. If home-session payment has ended for Medicare patients, or the hybrid program has fewer than 15 patients, enrollment in the hybrid model stops and work on the county C satellite case starts. Referral strategy has more evidence behind it than any other part of this plan (Grace et al., 2011), and the hybrid model is promising but still developing (Beatty et al., 2023); the review points are designed around that difference in certainty. The hospital, program and figures are composite.
References
Beatty, A. L., Beckie, T. M., Dodson, J., Goldstein, C. M., Hughes, J. W., Kraus, W. E., Martin, S. S., Olson, T. P., Pack, Q. R., Stolp, H., Thomas, R. J., Wu, W.-C., & Franklin, B. A. (2023). A new era in cardiac rehabilitation delivery: Research gaps, questions, strategies, and priorities. Circulation, 147(3), 254-266. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.061046
Grace, S. L., Russell, K. L., Reid, R. D., Oh, P., Anand, S., Rush, J., Williamson, K., Gupta, M., Alter, D. A., & Stewart, D. E. (2011). Effect of cardiac rehabilitation referral strategies on utilization rates: A prospective, controlled study. Archives of Internal Medicine, 171(3), 235-241. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2010.501
Ritchey, M. D., Maresh, S., McNeely, J., Shaffer, T., Jackson, S. L., Keteyian, S. J., Brawner, C. A., Whooley, M. A., Chang, T., Stolp, H., Schieb, L., & Wright, J. (2020). Tracking cardiac rehabilitation participation and completion among Medicare beneficiaries to inform the efforts of a national initiative. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 13(1), Article e005902. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.119.005902
Thomas, R. J., Balady, G., Banka, G., Beckie, T. M., Chiu, J., Gokak, S., Ho, P. M., Keteyian, S. J., King, M., Lui, K., Pack, Q., Sanderson, B. K., & Wang, T. Y. (2018). 2018 ACC/AHA clinical performance and quality measures for cardiac rehabilitation: A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Performance Measures. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 11(4), Article e000037. https://doi.org/10.1161/HCQ.0000000000000037
What the HA 630 Unit 8 instructions ask for
The final unit calls for a complete marketing plan with a financial forecast. Expect an executive summary, a brief situation and targeting recap, actions with owners and costs, forecast assumptions, a quarterly forecast, year-one and year-two results, a downside case, measures and review points. Students often ask whether a plan that loses money in year one can be recommended. It can, if the reasons are clear and later years recover, so show the timing honestly. Write every assumption next to the number it drives. Make the action costs add up to the request. Test a downside case with realistic shortfalls. Set review points that say exactly what changes if targets are missed.
How the HA 630 Unit 8 example is put together
The plan opens with the request, expected patients and the year-one and year-two results. The recap summarizes the market, the two segments and the position in a few lines. An action table lists each step with an owner and cost, totaling $167,000. The assumptions section explains sessions per patient, revenue and variable cost per session and the hybrid model's home sessions. A quarterly table shows patients added and contribution building through the year. The results section explains the year-one loss and the year-two gain. The downside case cuts volume and removes home-session payment. The measures section names each source and how often it is reported. The review points set specific cuts and shifts at months 6 and 12.
HA 630 Unit 8 rubric: what full points look like
Herzing's rubric for a marketing plan and forecast typically covers the summary, recap, actions, assumptions, forecast, results, downside case, measures and review points. Visible assumptions and the downside case carry the most weight, because leaders approve plans whose numbers they can challenge and whose risks are already priced. Summary points reward the request and results in the opening lines. Action criteria look for owners and costs that reconcile. Forecast credit goes to quarterly timing rather than one annual figure. Results should explain a loss honestly. Measures need sources and frequency. Review points should say what changes when targets are missed. Grace's referral trial, Ritchey's participation study and Thomas's performance measures support the forecast.
HA 630 Unit 8 help: mistakes that cost points
Marketing plans in HA 630 Unit 8 fall short most often when costs in the action table do not add up to the request. Another frequent problem is assumptions hidden inside the forecast. Students often forecast a single annual number with no quarterly ramp. Year-one losses are hidden or explained away. The downside case changes one figure slightly instead of testing real risks. Measures have no data source. Review points say monitor progress rather than what will change. Depreciation is left out. Earlier units' figures change without explanation. Finally, put each assumption beside its number, because graders reward a plan a finance committee could question line by line and still approve.
Get a HA 630 Unit 8 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 8 instructions and the rubric from your HA 630 classroom, along with the service line, the budget range and any earlier work your plan has to build on. We write a custom example with a costed calendar, a reconciled budget, a forecast showing its assumptions and a measurement block, returned in 24 to 48 hours. The first custom sample is free.
More HA 630 papers and healthcare administration samples
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- HA 630 Unit 7: Service line growth plan
- HA 695 Unit 8: Leadership presentation
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HA 630 Unit 8 questions, answered
How do I forecast volume without real historical data?
Build it from stated assumptions and label them as assumptions. Start from the addressable segment size, apply a reach figure, then a response rate, then a conversion to scheduled visits, showing each step. Anchor whichever figures you can to published benchmarks and cite them. A transparent chain that a reviewer can challenge at any link is worth far more than a single confident total.
Should the final plan repeat the earlier units in full?
No, and doing so usually costs marks. Carry forward the conclusions, not the workings: the target segment, the position, the competitive gap and the constraints. Two or three tight paragraphs with references back to the supporting analysis will serve a decision maker better than fifteen pages of restated material, and it leaves room for the forecast and measurement work being graded here.
What measures belong in a healthcare marketing plan?
Ones tied to volume and money. New patient visits, referrals received from targeted practices, scheduled appointments by source, retention within the line, market share in the defined service area and contribution per incremental case all connect activity to result. Reach and engagement figures can appear as diagnostics that explain a result, but they should not be the measures the plan is judged on.
Where can I find a free HA 630 Unit 8 sample paper?
Read the complete HA 630 Unit 8 marketing plan and forecast here at no charge, $167,000 for 66 more patients with a quarterly forecast and a downside case. Ask for a custom plan and forecast for another program.
How do you forecast results for a healthcare marketing plan?
Estimate added patients by channel, multiply by sessions and contribution per session, spread them by quarter, subtract costs including depreciation and test a downside case. This sample forecasts cardiac rehabilitation that way.