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Nur 571 Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

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Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
Amy Santus RN BSN
HCS/571
October 3, 2011
Debra Vaughn

Increasing pressures of cutting costs and improving the quality of care in health care services influences the management of the health care organization to implement the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) within their daily routines. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are a set of uniform accounting guidelines health care organizations follow to determine the financial position of an organization. According to Finkler, Kovner, and Jones (2007) the most common and important GAAP are as follows: (a) Entity concept, (b) Going-concern concept, (c) Matching principle and cash versus …show more content…

However, the materiality principle assists the professional judgment of a manager with these challenges on deciphering whether or not to deem an item as material. Usually if an item has an impact on the income, or affects the decision making of the professional using the financial statement, the item is material. Another GAAP is the full disclosure principle. This principle states that it is imperative to include all information in a financial statement of an entity that would affect the reader’s understanding of the statements. This principle also includes the reporting of any current accounting policies as well as any changes of them. The last GAAP is the consistency principle. The consistency principle suggests that once an organization agrees upon the utilization of an accounting principle or method, they should consistently use the same method for future fiscal years. This will provide a more accurate comparison for the individuals dealing with the massive amounts of numbers and transactions each fiscal year. In conclusion, a health care organization’s primary focus may be to provide quality care services; however the financial wellbeing and viability is critical to meet that focus. “A substantial portion of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP) applies specifically to reporting entities that are involved in the business of healthcare. Therefore, the generally accepted accounting principles were developed as a set of

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