Welcome to Week 3! This week you will examine income statements, statement of change in equity, balance sheets, and statements of cash flows.

Readings

From Healthcare Finance: An Introduction to Accounting and Financial Management:

• Chapter 3, “The Income Statement and Statement of Changes in Equity.”
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• Chapter 4, “The Balance Sheet of Statement of Cash Flows.”
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Multimedia

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Financial Condition of the Organization

Click the linked activity title to access this weekly discussion. If you need help with completing discussions, please watch this  for more information.

Health Care Finance Interview

Identify a leader in a health care setting who is responsible for fiscal planning and financial management. This person may be solely responsible for financial management or have multiple duties and responsibilities that include fiscal planning and financial management. Request an interview with that person. You may conduct your interview in person, via teleconference, or via videoconference. Use the interview guide you created for last week’s assignment. Also, use  and other sources to locate publicly available financial information for this organization. Use it as context for your interview.

The Interview Guide you created in Week 2 should include 10 questions. Seven questions are provided for you. You should develop three additional questions. You should ask the following seven questions in addition to the three questions that you developed:

1. Can you tell me about your role within your organization? What are your duties and responsibilities? How long have you been in this role?
2. Can you share with me all of your duties and responsibilities that involve fiscal planning and financial management?
3. How does your organization approach strategic planning?
4. How do you approach operational budgeting? How does your organization approach capital budgeting?
5. What is the most expensive aspect of health care delivery?
6. How is health care finance related to the cost of care, quality, value, waste, performance improvement, regulatory compliance, provider relationships, and insurance reimbursement?
7. What cost-containment measures has the organization used?

Write a 34 page paper in which you report your findings from your interview and research:

1. Indicate the name and title of the person you interviewed. Share some background about their organization. List the responsibilities and scope of their role, and how long they have been in the role.
2. Share the mission, vision, and strategic priorities of the organization.
3. Provide some organizational background (location, size, focus, services provided, demographics of patients served, for- or nonprofit status, et cetera).
4. Explain all of the financial-related tasks and responsibilities that your interviewee engages in.
5. From your interviewee’s perspective, explain how health care finance is related to the cost of care, quality, value, waste, performance improvement, regulatory compliance, provider relationships, and insurance reimbursement.
6. Comment on the organization’s strategic planning process and its relationship to financial management. Is there appropriate alignment? Support your perspective.
7. In a final paragraph, explain what you see as the most important aspect of financial management for health care administrators.

The specific learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

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