Financial fluency: demystifying accounting and business planning for the reproductive medicine specialist.

In today's ever-changing business climate, reproductive health specialists are realizing that financial fluency is key to growing and maintaining a successful practice. Although financial fundamentals such as accounting may seem complex, both academic and private practice reproductive specialists who understand these topics can benefit in making business decisions for their practices. We describe the key financial fundamentals that reproductive health specialists should know, including basic concepts of finance and accounting, payments and receivables, capital budgeting, and business planning, and interpreting balance sheets, income statements, and cash-flow statements.

Why revisit your cost-accounting strategy.

Healthcare entities seeking to develop effective cost-accounting systems should take six steps to avoid potential pitfalls: Secure broad executive-level support for the effort. Ensure systems are in place to analyze the disparate data. Define measurable objectives to ensure that implementation achieves desired results. Give due consideration to implementation planning. Train support staff sufficiently to avoid underutilization. Develop a sufficiently broad base of staff support for the system.

Partnerships in medical business: a framework for choosing the right key players.

At a time when more and more physicians are opting for shared practices and embarking on business ventures, partnerships play a key role. The fate of a medical business is largely contingent upon the success of the partnership. In this article, the author introduces a practical framework for deciding whether to take on a partnership. The model considers six critical factors: financial compensation, special skill set, goal alignment, personality assessment, overall strengths and weaknesses, and trustworthiness. It also provides an evaluation of financial incentives. The paper also provides several action items for physicians.

The value of daily money management: an analysis of outcomes and costs.

For vulnerable and frail older adults, management of daily financial obligations can become an overwhelming burden spiraling into at-risk situations. Social service agencies have developed community-based Daily Money Management programs to assist these adults in protecting their financial security. Through this study the authors present the first economic estimates of the costs of Daily Money Management programs which, along with case management programs, save $60,000 per individual when compared with the cost of nursing home placement, making them highly cost effective. Most importantly, individuals are able to remain in their homes. The authors address the current gap between cost-effective community-based practice and public policy support.

Dynamic CDM strategies in an EHR environment.

A dynamic charge description master (CDM) integrates information from clinical ancillary systems into the charge-capture process, so an organization can reduce its reliance on the patient accounting system as the sole source of billing information. By leveraging the information from electronic ancillary systems, providers can eliminate the need for paper charge-capture forms and see increased accuracy and efficiency in the maintenance of billing information. Before embarking on a dynamic CDM strategy, organizations should first determine their goals for implementing an EHR system, include revenue cycle leaders on the EHR implementation team, and carefully weigh the pros and cons of CDM design decisions.

Medicare incentive payments for meaningful use of electronic health records: accounting and reporting developments.

The Healthcare Financial Management Association through its Principles and Practices (P&P) Board publishes issue analyses to provide short-term practical assistance on emerging issues in healthcare financial management. In a new issue analysis excerpted in this article, HFMA's P&P Board provides some clarity to the healthcare industry on certain accounting and reporting issues resulting from incentive payments under the Medicare program for the meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) technology. Consultation on these matters with independent auditors is highly recommended.

Shared services centers and work sustainability: which contributions from ergonomics?

This study examines the way in which Shared Services Centers (SSCs) were implemented in a French multinational company. It aims to characterize the change according to the capabilities model developed by Amartya Sen: what are the effects of SSCs in terms of capabilities development and developmental quality of work, i.e. in the enabling potential of work? A 3-step methodology has been used: first, an investigation was conducted in a pay service of a local entity moving into SSC in 2013; second, two investigations were conducted in another pay service of a SSC: first, a few months after the change, and then, one year after the change (the same operators were interviewed). Results show a tendency to the decrease of the enabling potential. Additionally, it was noted that administrators are kept away from the design process and have to struggle with inappropriate rules. The efficiency and sustainability of the SSC are questioned; in this context, the human factor specialist has an important role to play.

Regional health accounts for Pakistan--expenditure disparities on provincial and district level.

Since May 2009 the first National Health Accounts (NHA) for Pakistan have been finalised and published by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) in cooperation with German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). This paper goes one step ahead of the report and analyses in more detail the regional differences in health expenditure structures in Pakistan. The further analyses can be divided into four parts: health expenditures in provinces (Provincial Health Accounts, PHA), Punjab provincial and district governments health expenditures and its comparison with ADB figures, all districts of Pakistan and comparison between total district government and provincial government expenditure for each province; the latter calculation is applied as indication for the degree of fiscal autonomy of the districts in each province. Consequently, first the provincial health expenditures by Financial Agents is analysed and compared between the provinces which leads to very heterogeneous results (section 2); the per capita health expenditures differ from 16 to 23 USD. Secondly, NHA results on Punjab district government are compared with available ADB results and differences in methods as possible reasons for different results are presented (section 3). Third, district data of all district governments in all four Pakistani provinces are analysed on the level of detailed function codes in section 4; the aim is to discover regional differences between districts of the same as well as of different provinces. Fourth, in section 5 the degree of fiscal autonomy on health of the districts in each province is analysed; therefore the ordinance description is reviewed and total district government with total provincial government expenditures are compared per province. Finally recommendations for future rounds of NHA in Pakistan are given regarding formats and necessities of detailed health expenditure data collection to ensure evidence based decision making not only on federal, but also on provincial and district level.

Revisit, revamp, and revitalize your business plan: part 3.

Managing with financial statements is discussed, including fundamental definitions and conventions related to this process such as an income statement and a balance sheet. Balanced scorecards and dashboards can be used to measure progress and to communicate achievements. Steps taken to defining data using KPIs, sourcing data, and structuring the scorecard are outlined. A core part of managing with financial statements is understanding how to drive the business and engage the staff using balanced scorecards.