UA Senior Wins Second Place in Health Care Essay Competition

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – 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.

“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.

The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration was established in 1919, and in 1929 it became the 38th school to earn admission into the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. The excellence of the UA business school has been acknowledged on a national level. The undergraduate program is ranked 29th among public universities by U.S. News and Culverhouse School of Accountancy is ranked 15th among public universities by U.S. News. The graduate accounting program is ranked 15th and the undergraduate program 14th by Public Accounting Report. The entrepreneurial program is ranked 18th nationally.