Reporting Practices and Ethics Paper

Reporting Practices and Ethics Paper

Carline Gilbert

UOPHX HCS 405/ Karen Moses

December 13, 2010

Addressing financial reporting practices and ethical standards in health care finance, can be done in various different ways. Either way this component of health care is addressed, it is important for a health care finance element, within an organization, to ensure that this is addressed correctly. A good way to explain and address the ethical standards in health care finance is by explaining the four elements of finance. These four elements include, Planning, Controlling, Organizing, and Decision Making. With these four elements, addressing financial reporting practices and ethical standards in health care organizations, can be addressed, and provide examples that reflect how organizations accomplish this.

The first element of finance is Planning. According to Judith and R.W. Baker, the financial manager identifies the steps that must be taken to accomplish the organization’s objectives. Thus, the purpose is to identify objectives and then to identify the steps required for accomplishing these objectives (Healthcare Finance p5). A good example of this is, within a healthcare organization financial managers need to choose among numerous methods of depreciating assets. Different methods result in a different financial picture. Judgment is then required to determine the asset's useful life or residual value. A financial manager knows what the asset cost, but what it will be worth five years from now is a judgment call. To ensure consistency of practices organization wide, accounting policies and procedures should be developed and maintained.

The second element of finance is controlling. Controlling occurs when the financial manager makes sure that each area of the organization is following the plans that have been established. One way to do this is to study current reports and compare them with reports from earlier...