As the Chief Financial Officer of Marysville General Hospital, I have informed the hospital board members, that the accounts receivable has quickly approached the 100th day mark. The accounts receivable had crept from the 70-80 day range within the past few months, which is greater than the average of 55 days. There are many factors that could be a potential reason as to why the hospital accounts receivable days are rising, however, collectively the board members will create a plan of action that will bring the accounts receivable days back in line. It will take cooperation from everyone including the board members, medical staff, clinical departments, health information management, business office, and many others. Therefore, each of these departments will be involved in devising a solution to reduce the accounts receivable crisis.
Before the proposal for a development plan for reducing accounts receivable, the following departments are requested to submit a current report showing the status of their departments. The departments are: admissions; registrations; chart documentation; charge capture; claims processing; payment posting; secondary billing and patient follow-up. All of these reports will provide further insight as to how each of the departments has performed, and contributed to the increase of accounts receivable. Additionally, in reviewing these documents, the hospital will analyze the collection data from the finance department, comparing the past,
-Maintaining accounts receivable aging reports and constantly review and resolve past due, credit, and debit
My strategy will consist of three phases. These phases include: capital shortage, funding options for equipment acquisition and funding options for capital expansion. During these three phases I will observe the necessary financial statements and documents. From this information I will analyze the information and decide the best strategy for improvements. I will not only focus on the goals for the clinic, but long term budget goals as well.
In week 2, I will be answering some questions that are relevant to the company “Central Health Services” selling service contracts for healthcare applicants and equipment. I will be discussing adjusting the accounts, adjustments and ethics also located in our textbook. In conclusion, I will be discussing my overall review of my findings and the difficulty in accrual accounting.
The role of finance in Health Care Systems, Inc. as a regional not-for-profit hospital relates to both the accounting and financial management aspects of the business. Facets of both accounting and financial management are intertwined with maximizing productivity by way of managing and analyzing financial operations to ensure resources are being utilized properly (Gapensiki, 2013). The divulgence of financial reports to managers and investors will aid in the development of plans and budgets for future growth, assess acceptable levels of financial risk, manage contracts appropriately and make decisions related to capital investments allowing the organization to expand service offerings thereby demonstrating greater value in the community. Operating as a not-for-profit entity requires that the hospital operate exclusively in the interest of the public for a charitable purpose. Through understanding who the primary third party payers
Although the company seems to be profitable, it has faced shortage of cash. It happened due to increase in Accounts Receivable as well as Inventories. On the other hand, Accounts Payable does not increase that rapidly and difficulties regarding cash collection become evident. Furthermore, the cash collection cycle becomes larger (59 days in year 2003, while more than 70 in year 2006).
13). The clinical services department within the hospital is responsible for the accurate charting of any procedure or service that was provided to the patient. This process begins with patient registration and verification. The healthcare provider then will perform their job as necessary and will indicate what billable tasks were performed which can later be processed. The patient accounts department is responsible for going through the patient’s chart and recording the patient’s bill by use of the hospital’s chargemaster to send the bill to the payer by the health information department. In this department the initial coding of the patient’s medical record is done. Once overviewed for the sake of accuracy, the final coding is done and sent to the payer. Any inaccuracies by any of these departments could directly impact the hospitals reimbursement process through a slowing for the process or simply by failing to bill for a procedure performed, ultimately hurting the hospital’s financial stability. The patient financial services (PFS) department is responsible for ensuring compliance within the billing and coding policies through training and with quality assurance checks and regular audits. This ensures that the revenue and reimbursement cycle continues without any inaccuracies in patient charges. It is especially important to have quality management within this department, as it has the potential to affect the entire organization, reflective of the institutes financial situation. Poor PFS management can lead to a loss in revenue and can lead to a loss in budget if the hospital is losing too much as a result. Ensuring compliance with medical coding and billing guidelines and policies ensures a more accurate representation of the hospitals financial and budgetary situations, while
Patient Accounting and Practice Management systems are designed to help health care medical practices are to improve the quality of care, cut cost, reduce risk, and increase revenues. When it comes to the size of a medical practice from small, or to a large medical practice, multi-location group this will feather the system to allow in creating and maintaining a patient billing information much faster and more efficiently then it was ever before. Medical Assistants are able to enter a patient information and post any changes much faster and more accurately with the use of a simplified medical billing software that promotes physician acceptance and much greater investment protection that provides faster insurance reimbursement and to improve
Souza, M. & McCarty, B. (2007). From bottom to top: How one provider retooled its collections [electronic version]. Healthcare Financial Management, 61(9), 67-73.
Since the majority of US thrive on the use of credit cards, the accounts receivables for a company may no longer be on a cash-to-cash basis. A company may need to sell these accounts to other companies who specialize in handling accounts receivables if they need cash more quickly or if it would be too costly to perform the necessary billing to collect on the account.
1. Obtain an aged trial balance of individual customer accounts. Recalculate the total and trace to the general ledger control account.
In order to insure each staff member was obtaining their individual and team goals, each member was given their own business (Souza). The tools in which the PFS were given provided them with the tools to prioritize and automate account work lists, sort accounts in various ways and see at a glance their ranking with their work group and office-wide. Managers were given their own dashboard and tools which able them to use query all aspects of receivables for trending purposes and identify problem areas, drill down to the patient account level, monitor revenue, payments, adjustments, receivables, and days for periods from the previous day and week to the previous 18 months, calculate average daily revenue by day and 30-day period, assess their performance for the month to date, and estimate likely results at the month end, view all receivables or select any segment for quick analysis, and generate timely reports on demand, including aging analysis, A/R stratification, discharged not final billed (DNFB) analysis, credit balance analysis, and analysis of problem payers. Finally, a denials management component was implemented in late summer, which will allow registration staff to go online at the end of the year (Souza).
The intention of this research paper is to further understand the financial statement of four distinct hospitals located in the San Diego, California County. An analysis of the financial report for Sharp HealthCare, Scripps Health, Tri-City HealthCare, and Palomar Health will be briefly discussed individually on each important financial outcome’s Such as: assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses, hospital debt, and investments. To analyze further, a break down between the hospitals assets, liabilities, and revenue will be compared in the paper.
The cost of the health care industry has always been rising since the early 1980s. It has been a growing concern in both the industry and society. Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is no exception. Even though the average length of stay (LOS) for the patients in MGH has been declining (Exhibit 10), it is still the highest compared to their competitors (Exhibit 6). Besides the cost, there is no uniformity of process and standardization across different facilities and departments of the hospital. MGH lacks communication and coordination between the facilities.
11. Accounts receivable turnover and days sales in accounts receivable for the last three years:
The financial statement analysis of Doctors Hospital raises hopes and concerns regarding the financial performance and financial situation of the hospital. A rise in net assets and drop in liabilities will support the financial base of the hospital. Profits from short-term I nvestments should maintain this base, and improve the total assets. There is a concern in regards to cash flow and net income. There is a large reduction in cash flow of $2,222,000, which means there might be a shortage in cash flow to continue the project or purchase capital equipment. The organization should have to find solutions like to borrow from banks, spreading payments in future, etc. to manage the shortage of cash flow (Finkler et al., 2013). Another area