Week 3 Assignment - Healthcare Finance Research

Overview

Instructions

• Develop an introduction to your chosen healthcare organization.
  • The name of the selected organization and background information, such as its location, size, focus, services provided, demographics of patients served, for-profit or nonprofit status, et cetera.
  • Indicate whether the organization has a separate finance or business department and, if so, who is responsible for the department.
  • Any other information that may help explain the chosen organization. For example, is it unique in how its finances are managed? If so, how?
• Develop research-based answers to the five previously created questions.
  • A response to each of the five questions you created in Week 2. This should include specific information pertaining to the chosen healthcare organization’s budget preparation process, fiscal planning strategies, and how the financial condition of the organization is routinely monitored and corrective actions are taken when necessary.
• Assess any differences and similarities between what you have learned from the textbook, videos, and other readings with what you have learned in your research.
  • This is the part of the paper where you assess any differences between what you have learned in this course and what is reflected in your research. This is also an opportunity to identify connections between cost and quality and explore the interplay of performance improvement, regulatory compliance, provider relationships, and payors. Keep in mind that the background and context of the organization play a role in how these pieces fit together.

Resources

• Google Operator Search: You can use symbols or specific words in your Google search to make results more precise. For healthcare organizations’ finances:
  • If your chosen healthcare organization has a website of www.communityhospital.org, you would use the following search to look within their website for financials:
    • site:communityhospital.org “financial statements”
    • To narrow your search even further, you could add filetype: to the end of your search to look for specific files. For example, filetype:pdf.
• EMMA: EMMA (Electronic Municipal Market Access) is a great resource for locating reports on large nonprofit hospitals. Simply use the “browse issuers” at the top, and then click on the state your hospital is located in. From there is populated list of bond issuers within the state. Many of them are just the city name, but it is easiest to put the word health in the “Search within this list:” box to narrow it to bond issuers for hospitals. On the next page in the same search box, you can put the name of your hospital and you will select the most recent result. This will take you to a page with different tabs containing financial information.
• EDGAR Report: All companies are required to fill out periodic EDGAR reports through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This applies to public, for-profit organizations. You can learn more about the reports, how to read them, and how to access them at the SEC's Filings & Forms.
• GuideStar: GuideStar offers a way to look for finances from nonprofit healthcare organizations.

• Assess the relationship among healthcare costs, quality, performance improvement, regulatory compliance, provider relationships, and payors.