What Does the Healthcare Manager Need to Know?
What Does the Healthcare Manager Need to Know?
As a healthcare manager, the information that I work with is one part of an overall system.
To understand financial management, it is essential to recognize the overall system in which the organization operates. An order exists within the system, watch for how the information fits together. The four segments that make a healthcare financial system work are:
1) The original records
2) The information system
3) The accounting system
4) The reporting system.
The Information Flow
Information systems can be simplistic or highly complex. They can be fully automated or semi-automated. In addition, the financial information, both outpatient and inpatient, is fed into the data repository. Scheduling system data also enter the data repository, along with any relevant inpatient care plan and nursing information. These items have all been inputs.
One output from the clinical and financial data repository is insurance verification for patients through an electronic data information link to insurance company databases.
Basic System Elements
It is useful to understand certain basic system elements that are used to create the information contained in the financial reports.
Chart of Accounts – The Map: It outlines the elements of the company in an organized manner. The chart of accounts maps out account titles with a method of numeric coding. It is designed to compile financial data in a uniform manner that the user can decode.
Books and Records – Capture Transaction: The books and records of the financial information system for the organization serve to capture transaction.
Reports – The Product: Reports are the final product of a process that commences with an original transaction.