Health Care Budgeting And Financial Management

In today's chaotic health reform environment, it is especially important for non-financial health care managers to have a practical guide to the tools and concepts they need to manage their human, supply, and equipment resources. Today's health care managers, frequently, were yesterday's technicians, physicians, and nurses. This puts them in an interesting predicament, since they know the health care side of the business but often lack the financial management skills necessary to create budgets and manage finances in a health care setting. In this guide, William J. Ward Jr. offers easy-to-understand explanations of basic accounting concepts, including cash flow, operating cost and cost behavior, revenue and reimbursement, and so much more. Providing clearly presented financial information in the context of health care, Ward's book is a one-stop desk reference that provides practical, useful tools and knowledge that readers can immediately put to use. It will help managers, directors, and clinical leaders who work in hospitals, physician practices, and other provider organizations to effectively manage their financial resources on a day-to-day basis, providing guidance for essential tasks such as preparing budgets, managing their departments, and making decisions around financial issues.

The basic premise of this book is that health care non-financial managers need to understand enough about financial management to be successful in their day-to-day activities while not being smothered with details. Ward provides managers with a basic level of financial management principles, including understanding financial statements and ratios, preparing an operating budget, and using financial analysis to help with decision making. Written in plain English, the text is interspersed with illustrative cases and examples gleaned from more than twenty years of experience in both operational and financial areas and in both staff and management capacities. The text is sophisticated enough to be used by graduate students and practitioners as well as undergraduate programs in health services administration. It is also suited for independent study by professionals seeking to enhance their professional development. Lastly, it is useful as a day-to-day reference for managers in all fields in health care.

Understanding budgeting goals, processes, and incentives are vital skills for health care managers as they are responsible for creating budgets and managing their departments within the established budget. However, many health care managers lack these basic skills. This book is a comprehensive examination of budgeting practices designed to provide students with the ability to construct budgets and analyze differences between actual financial results and the budget. Each chapter takes the reader through a step-by-step process to analyze systems, incorporate organizational goals into budgets, identify performance issues, and explore how budget systems impact behavior.

In today's chaotic health reform environment, it is especially important for non-financial health care managers to have a practical guide to the tools and concepts they need to manage their human, supply, and equipment resources. Today's health care managers, frequently, were yesterday's technicians, physicians, and nurses. This puts them in an interesting predicament, since they know the health care side of the business but often lack the financial management skills necessary to create budgets and manage finances in a health care setting. In this guide, William J. Ward Jr. offers easy-to-understand explanations of basic accounting concepts, including cash flow, operating cost and cost behavior, revenue and reimbursement, and so much more. Providing clearly presented financial information in the context of health care, Ward's book is a one-stop desk reference that provides practical, useful tools and knowledge that readers can immediately put to use. It will help managers, directors, and clinical leaders who work in hospitals, physician practices, and other provider organizations to effectively manage their financial resources on a day-to-day basis, providing guidance for essential tasks such as preparing budgets, managing their departments, and making decisions around financial issues.

A plain-English guide to health care budgeting simplifies even the mos t complex money mattersfor finance pros or beginners. Brimming with re al-world examples, spreadsheets, charts, and tables, this refreshing r esource provides quick and clear guidance on all hospital spending iss uesfrom the most basic to the very sophisticated. It is an enormously helpful reference to help control spending, increase mastery of key bu dget concepts, strengthen the foundations of operational planning, and speed up problem solving.

Thoroughly revised, this third edition of Financial Management of Health Care Organizations of­fers an introduction to the most-used tools and techniques of health care financial management. Comprehensive in scope, the book covers a broad range of topics that include an overview of the health care system and evolving reimbursement methodologies; health care accounting and finan­cial statements; managing cash, billings, and collections; the time value of money and analyzing and financing major capital investments; determining cost and using cost information in decision-mak­ing; budgeting and performance measurement; and pricing. In addition, this new edition includes information on new laws and regulations that affect health care financial reporting and performance, revenue cycle management expansion of health care services into new arenas, benchmarking, interest rate swaps, bond ratings, auditing, and internal control. This important resource also contains information on the 2007 Healthcare Audit Guide of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Written to be accessible, the book avoids complicated formulas. Chapter appendices offer advanced, in-depth information on the subject matter. Each chapter provides a detailed outline, a summary, and key terms, and includes problems in the context of real-world situations and events that clearly illustrate the concepts presented. Problem sets that end each chapter have been updated and expanded to support more in-depth learning of the chapters’ concepts. An Instructor’s Manual, available online, contains PowerPoint and Excel files.

This text presents basic concepts of economics and tools for financial management in the health care arena, including budgeting, breakeven analysis, financial reporting, business plan preparation, and grant writing. The text includes practical case examples drawn from actual health care settings to relate theory to real-world practice. A sample grant proposal and unique grant writing chapter will prepare students for this critical aspect of management. A free, back-of-book CD-ROM provides sample worksheets for analyzing budgets and determining breakeven points, cost-benefit, and cost-effectiveness, as well as sample budgets. Students can use the worksheets to apply their own data and complete their own analyses.

"This text was developed as the result of a perceived need for non-financial managers to know enough about financial management in the context of health services to be successful in their day-to-day managerial activities while not burdening them with an approach bordering on overkill. As a result, this text is not an "everything you ever wanted to know about financial management, but were afraid to ask" tome. Instead, it is a plain talk, introductory text that provides enough information to be useful and completely sufficient for non-financial managers while at the same time providing a sound basis for additional study"--

Learn the essentials of finance theory and practice with the tools needed in day-to-day practice In this thoroughly revised and updated fourth edition of Fundamentals of Health Care Financial Management, consultant and educator Steven Berger offers a practical step-by-step approach to understanding the fundamental theories and relationships guiding financial decisions in health care organization. Using cases set in a fictional mid-sized hospital, the book takes the reader into the inner workings of the finance executive's office. As in the previous editions, this book introduces students to key practical concepts in fundamental areas of financial management. This innovative introduction to the most-used tools and techniques includes health care accounting and financial statements; managing cash, billings and collections; making major capital investments; determining cost and using cost information in decision-making; budgeting and performance measurement; and pricing. Also covered in depth are the financial implications of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which will increase patient volume, reduce bad debt, factor quality and patient satisfaction into the financial picture, and significantly affect how hospitals and physicians are paid for services. Students focusing on the business side of health care will find Fundamentals of Health Care Financial Management: A Practical Guide to Fiscal Issues and Activities, 4th Edition a valuable text for understanding the workings of the health care financial system.

In this thoroughly revised and updated third edition of Fundamentals of Health Care Financial Management, consultant and educator Steven Berger offers a practical step-by-step approach to understanding the fundamental theories and relationships guiding financial decisions in health care organization. Set in a fictional mid-sized hospital, the book is written in diary form, taking the reader into the inner workings of the finance executive's office. This introduction to the most-used tools and techniques of health care financial management includes health care accounting and financial statements; managing cash, billings and collections; making major capital investments; determining cost and using cost information in decision-making; budgeting and performance measurement; and pricing. As in the previous editions, this book introduces key practical concepts in fundamental areas of financial management.