The Focus of Healthcare in Accounting

The Focus Of Healthcare In Accounting

        Being able to understand the difference between finance and accounting for me personally has been quite a challenge. Realizing that these two concepts go hand in hand is important. Before taking this course I was under the impression that each entity involved in the healthcare field ran itself with no correlation to each other. Looking more into finance and accounting I see and realize otherwise. According to the Webster’s dictionary accounting is a method of providing financial information, financing is the area that is managed and supervised to manage the organization. Without having a strong and organized accounting department the company/business/medical practice puts themselves at risk for a possible mismanagement of resources and funds for the projected budgets. Financial wealth is important when allocating funds for a medical practice, you want to ensure that the quality of care that is being provided meets the standards laid out by the law but that also you are giving your patients something worth using.

        A strong accounting department ensures that the goals and accomplishments set out while planning a budget will be met, they allow important medical/financial decisions to be made. All areas of healthcare need some type of accounting help. I assume that companies have the options to outsource for help in this area, and allow department heads know if enough funds are available to meet the needs of the hospital/clinic/office. With that being said having a organized accounting department alleviates the pressure on medical staff that deal directly with patients securing patient satisfactory, upholding the standard, also giving more time to focus on employees, retention rates, training and education for staff. I feel that without someone helping manage the finances within a business you run the risk of losing control and ultimately going out of business or over spending/under spending. Each month is a new opportunity to do better in comparison to the previous month, calculating errors or areas of improvement gives way to allowing accountants the wiggle room to cover all the aspects of business.