...Reporting Practices and Ethics Paper HCS/405 November 30, 2014 Financial management in health care today like any other business should be conducted ethically, professional and accurately. The four elements of financial management need to be used and put into place to help ensure the financial stability and success of the organizations will be accomplished year after year. Generally, the same accounting principles and general financial ethical standards are practiced in every health care organization and these principles need to be implemented correctly if the organization wishes to be successful. Organizations need to keep up a certain level of transparency and this can only be accomplished by accurately reporting their financial statements. Several articles are going to be discussed reflecting the reporting practices and ethical standards in health care after a brief summary of the general accounting principles, ethical standards of finance and the four elements of financial management are given. Summary: Four elements of financial management The four elements of financial management are planning, controlling, organizing and directing and decision making. (Baker & Baker, 2011, p. 5) Each element is a task that is performed by the finance manager and they go in the order mentioned above. Like in any other aspect of business, planning has to be done to help identify the objectives that need to be accomplished and establish the steps necessary to ensure that each...
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...to Bring the Price of Health Care Into the Open Prices of health care have many sectors of the US economy trembling about how to manage and revealed the information to the public. Their efforts to come up with a plan that meets the necessities of the majority, but at the same time benefits the economy has become a great challenge to overcome in recent years. The United States economy it’s recognized for many achievements that grants its financial stability worldwide and serves an example for many other nations to follow. But, as much as society wants to brag and show off the wonderful nation they live in, first society must understand the uncompetitive health care system this country has. Even though, America is known for its dynamics of doing business, intellectuals and government itself still have not master a proper idea, mechanism, and structure of a proper healthcare system in the U.S. Many strategies can be master and practice to achieve a much productive service of health care for Americans. The article, “How to bring the Price of Health Care into the Open” written by Melinda Beck published in the Wall Street Journal on February 23 of present year, addresses many substantial topics and ideas of our former health care system. Her main points are to inform, educate, and alert consumers in advance about health care pricing. The ways she delivers her points are by talking about how to bring the price of health care into the open, price transparency, the disparity between...
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...Reporting Practices and Ethics HCS/405 Introduction Planning, controlling, organizing and decision making make up the four elements of financial management Baker (2011). Standards and guidelines of financial reporting are known as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) ("Accounting Principles & General Financial Ethical Standards", 2014). Financial ethics and standards determine the success of an organization. The VA is accused of the death of over 1000 waiting for care and budget mismanagement (“Bad VA care may have killed more than 1,000 veterans, senator's report says,” 2014). The alleged deaths could have been avoided through the use of GAAP. The FBI has uncovered millions of Medicare fraud rings (“More Than 20 People Arrested Following Investigations into Widespread Health Care Fraud in D.C. Medicaid Program ” 2014,). The Four Elements of Financial Management According to Baker (2011), the four elements of financial management are: planning, controlling, organizing and decision making. Planning is the stage of identifying the organizations objectives and steps to obtain the objectives. Controlling allows management to measure data from previous and current reports to determine changes within the organization as needed. Organizing is the stage in which management coordinates each aspect of the plan, such as; who, what, when and where. Decision making is management’s final role in making an educated decision based on the other four elements of financial...
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...The Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) is a medical center that provides the services and expertise of a major medical facility with the convenience and personal attention of a community hospital. NWH is committed to delivering high-quality safe and efficient medical care to each and every patient. As Vice President for Physician Services, it is my position to display leadership within the NWH family. To work closely with the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and other members of NWH’s team to ensure hospital-related practices. This position serves for an excellent leadership opportunity and to help CEO, Dr. Jellinek to develop a plan of actions that are of priority for Newton-Wellesley Hospital for the next six months. My position is to identify the major issues and to execute a plan of action to solve these issues. Six Month Plan of Action Priority Issue: Shifting workforce demographics Both the influx of women and the new generation of young physicians’ shifts have a significant implication for recruitment and retention because of assumptions regarding the younger generations and women’s attitudes towards work and patient care (Jovic, Wallce, & Lemaire, 2006). This poses a problem because many of the younger physicians have a desire for more flexible schedules, a preference for the latest technology, and generation X and women are more concerned about work-life balance and quality of life rather than the older generation of physicians. The profession of medicine...
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...management The articles were about how health care industry using information technology (IT) has affected the hospital and the health care system in general. Healthcare Executives Develop Revenue cycle management (RCM) to effectively control health care system financials. The first article was on intermountain integrates revenue cycle management. Intermountain will be integrating cycle revenue for a large health system. The article explains how difficult it uses to be to administer the cost of health. Todd Craighead intermountain vice president of revenue cycle organization was asked to develop a more effective approach to consolidate the costs. Tom has stated many challenges that providers have accounted before integrating cycle management system. One of the issues were decentralization, each individual hospital had a director. Second was the denial rate was high. The next big challenge was price transparency and patient engagement. After implementing the cycle management there is a more centralized appeals team that has successfully kept denial rates low. Second All Executives report directly through one cycle management. Other directors focus on pre-registration and scheduling. Even there biggest challenge price transparency and patient engagement were consolidated using cycle management. The other article emphasizes the reasons cycle management was implementing and the benefits of the system in health care. One reason health care Executives develop the cycle management...
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...MOV E R S S H A KE RS A LOOK AT HUMANA’S INTEGRATED HEALTH APPROACH: A Conversation with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roy Beveridge March 2014 “We Accelerate Growth” MOV E R S & S H A KE R S Movers & Shakers Inter view with Dr. Roy Beveridge Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Humana March 2014 Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is a leading provider of commercial health plans, specialty insurance plans, and integrated health and wellness services. Headquartered in Louisville, Ky., the company was founded in 1961 and currently serves 12 million members across the US through individual and employer markets. Humana is the fifth-largest company in terms of medical membership in the country. Humana is particularly strong in the Medicare market and has developed deep expertise over its 25-plus year experience with the program. Humana currently has Medicare offerings in all 50 states and offers Medicare Advantage plans and standalone prescription drug coverage for approximately 5.8 million members. In addition to selling insurance products, Humana also delivers primary care, urgent care, wellness, and other healthcare services through its operation of medical centers and worksite medical facilities via its Concentra subsidiary, CAC Medical Centers in South Florida, wellness company LifeSynch and other affiliated businesses. Humana’s president and CEO is Bruce Broussard, who was named president in late 2011 and appointed CEO in 2013.The company reported $41.31 billion...
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...Engaging Patients with User-Friendly Data By John Rother, Executive Vice President for Policy and Strategy, AARP Patients who are informed and involved play a vital role in health care delivery. In order to increase awareness among patients it is important that providers are willing to be somewhat transparent in terms of quality and cost. In reality very few patients use available information on quality and cost which could help them become smarter consumers. Insurance companies and providers have been quick to make improvements and make most decisions for patients. Hospitals have responded well when there have been reports of problems with care. For consumers to be more involved they have to be given specific information at the point of care that has meaning for them. This translates to information that is easy to understand and specific to the current diagnosis. Data should be risk assessed when appropriate, should be user friendly and standardized so any number of providers could easily compare them. While consumers largely go by a hospital’s reputation for making decisions, some may be interested in specific clinical data pertaining physician responses in an emergency situation etc. . Some patients are unable to take advantage of relevant available information. They could be stressed and vulnerable and not have time to research providers or compare data. Not all patients are capable of participating in the complex decision making with...
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...healthcare the seamless interaction of all the parts makes the organisation successful as a whole. Service provided must be consistent with the goals of the organisation. Agencies and watchdogs have become even more visible seeking accountability and transparency. But how do leaders within the organisation work together to make it a success, how are they governed to achieve the goals of the organisation? In for-profit effective governance is easily recognisable, and achieved. The most important element in an organisation that operates for profit is its balance sheet, great sales and rising stock prices, profits being paid out as dividends, no mention of fraud in the company accounting, these are all excellent indicators of effective governance. In non-profits more so in healthcare, it is terribly difficult to measure or see effective governance. Also, the idea of optimum efficiency may have differing connotations for each stakeholder. Non-profits benefit from the luxury of not having to suffer agency conflicts; nevertheless they must ensure that there are measures in place that ensures transparency. Based on the five (5) overarching strategies suggested by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, I will endeavour to prove that the Dimensions Health Corporation utilizes most if not all these strategies. Table of Contents Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2 ...
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...Health Economics and Health Policy A critique of the methods used to measure and value health in cost-effectiveness studies submitted to NICE. Introduction The responsibility to provide data concerning “Good value for money” in regards to a new treatment or healthcare programme intervention has for itself a remarkable relevance. However, this information has become much more important in recent years due to the fact that we are facing a combination of unprecedented demand with the limitation of resources and the necessity of making decisions regarding priority setting in the healthcare system. Priority setting in healthcare means to determine what is most important in the context of finite resources as well as to decide who is going to benefit from a particular health care service as giving priority to one group of people inexorably implies taking it away from another one. (William, 1998). Nowadays, health care systems are facing the problem of how to set priorities in the allocation of health care resources in order to provide a high quality of care to those who need it and at a cost their governments can afford. All this happens in a time when people have greatest expectations concerning the care they should receive and the health care innovation offers broader options for interventions. (Littlejohns et al, 2012). In England the NHS has the obligation to provide a comprehensive and fair service for all and at the same time to promote an equal...
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...decision-makers to make informed decisions and acknowledge the effective reasons to bring that chronic healthcare system to pass. Economically speaking, the cost of healthcare is continued to rise. Despite the Affordable Care Act (ACA, 2010) and many individuals or economic expects analysis believe that the system creates doubt and an uncertain future. Conversely, physicians, managed-care companies, and other healthcare players have shown personal interests instead of putting a real plan together in order to come up with a win-win system rather than self-interest. “Price Transparency” However, price transparency becomes the growing consumerism movement for low-income families. In the meantime, for high-income class, it seems priceless. Truly speaking, many people would pay whatever it would cost to receive treatment and while some people have considered price is the common factor for not having insurance. Some experts believe that price must accompany quality data. Shannon (2008), price information that is provided without quality data may bring about changes diametrically opposed to those intended. Additionally, when provided only with price information, consumers may make assumptions about quality based on price and choose higher price rather than lower-priced care. “The Time Value of Money” Empirical studies have also shown doctors made the largest investments throughout their longtime education. Therefore, the time value of money for doctors is extremely important. There should...
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...elective deliveries. These are births scheduled without a medical reason between 37 and 39 completed weeks of pregnancy. The prevalence of these unsafe deliveries perfectly embodies the five biggest problems in our health system. Below I explain how — but keep reading, because I do have some words of optimism in the end. Problem 1: Too Much Unnecessary Care Overuse and unnecessary care accounts for anywhere from one-third to one-half of all health care costs, which equal hundreds of billions of dollars, in addition to the half-a-trillion per year experts attribute to lost productivity and disability. Early elective deliveries are unnecessary, according to advice by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, that has been repeated for more than 30 years (that’s not a typo – 30 years), a point reinforced today at a press conference. This is a message carried by several other highly respected organizations like Childbirth Connection, the March of Dimes and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric & Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN). All national health plans concur. Nonetheless, we saw a dramatic escalation in the rates of these deliveries from the 1990s to the first decade of the new century. Problem 2: Avoidable Harm to Patients This is one of health care’s most common problems. The statistics are staggering. Here’s an example: one in four Medicare beneficiaries that are admitted to a hospital suffers some form of harm during their stay. Would you get in your car...
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...P3: explain the roles and responsibilities of two overarching health organisations By Mercy Tiwo DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH The Department of Health (DH) is a ministerial department, supported by 23 agencies and public bodies. The department employs 2,160 staff who work in locations across the country. DH helps people to live better for longer. They lead, shape and fund health and care in England, making sure people have the support, care and treatment they require, with the compassion, respect and dignity they deserve. Their responsibilities include: * They lead across health and care by creating national policies and legislations, providing long-term goals to meet current and future problems/challenges, putting health and care at the core of the government and being global leader in health and care policy * They support the integrity of the system by providing funding, assuring the delivery and continuity of services and accounting to Parliament in a way that represents the best interests of the patient, public and taxpayer. * They support innovation and improvement by supporting research and technology, promoting honesty, openness and transparency, and teaching a culture that values compassion, dignity and the highest quality of care above everything Above all, DH encourages staff in every health and care organisation to understand and learn from people’s experience of health and care and to apply this to all their tasks. Their priorities are: * Living and...
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...The important thing is to be able to not make the same mistakes if our results were not good. We need to keep in mind that human beings make mistakes on a daily basis and what makes them successful is learning from those mistakes done. In health care accountability is definitely more important because you are dealing with patient’s health and lives. Being accountable in any health care organization it means that you are responding to patient, community, political, and commercial expectations. At all levels of the healthcare system important decisions are taken with regard to the quantity and the way in which the resources are used (Nunes 2011). Health care professional’s objective is to always offer the best quality of health care and access to resources to be able to meet those objectives. Each year over 100,000 people die due to health care mistakes that most of the times could have been prevented. Even though there have been different types of efforts to improve patient safety and improve health care delivery, errors keep on happening on a daily basis. You might ask yourself why things like these still happen. The answer is easy and straight forward, because no one is being accountable for their actions. Physicians and other health care professionals need to...
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...Affordable Care Act NUR/571 Affordable Care Act: Description The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted March 2010. The Act is to provide better health security for Americans by putting comprehensive health insurance reforms in place that will •Expand coverage •Hold Insurance companies accountable •Lower health care costs •Guarantee more choice •Enhance the quality of care for all Americans (medicaid.gov) “The Affordable Care Act expands Medicaid coverage and makes numerous improvements to both the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid ” (medicaid.gov). The actual document is a 974 page compilation of the major provisions put together by the office of the legislature. The major provisions as related to Medicaid and CHIP focus on the following: 1. Eligibility requirements – will fill gaps in current coverage for lower income Americans by minimizing eligibility levels for Medicaid across all states (medicaid.gov). 2. Financing - Starting January 2014 adults newly eligible for Medicaid will be fully funded by the government for a period of three years, then gradually reducing funding to 90% by 2020 (Medicaid gov). 3. Information systems and data management – Government financing will be provided for investment in data technology systems needed to get Medicaid systems up and running in time for the projected start date of January 2014 and for expanding Medicaid eligibility (medicaid.gov). 4. Coordination with affordable insurance exchanges...
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...U.S. Health Insurance Analysis: The Uninsured Background For much of its history, America was essentially made up of an uninsured population. Many companies hesitated to provide insurance because of the uncertainty of controlling costs. The Blue Cross/Blue Shield program was the first to attempt to tackle this issue. However in 1941, fewer than 10 million Americans were covered and most remained uninsured, paying their health expenses out of pocket (Barr, 2011). As of July 2017 the uninsured rate went up to 11.7% from 10.9% in the fourth quarter of 2016 (Luhby, 2017) and even with the individual mandate, there are still 24 million uninsured Americans. In the 1960s the two major events that impacted health policy were 1) expanding health...
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