Comparative Summary
Comparative Summary
* Health care financial environments most common are for- profit, not-for-profit, and government funding. This paper identified one entity from each of these health care financial environments, described the financial structure of each financial environment, identified policies unique to each financial environment, identified financial management practices prevalent in the financial environment, and explained why effective financial management is more difficult in health care than in other industries. The first one is Health Management Associates, Inc. founded in 1977 to own, lease and manage hospitals throughout the United States (Health Management Associates, 2011). Today HMA operates fifty nine hospitals in fifteen states with approximately eighty eight hundred licensed beds. The Company employs approximately thirty two thousands associates and hosts a total medical staff of approximately eight thousands physicians (Health Management Associates, 2011). HMA is a for profit organization with the three key features of investor-owned corporations. First, the owners (the stockholders) of the business are well defined and they exercise control of the firm by voting for directors. Second, the residual earnings of the business belong to the owners, so management is responsible only to the stockholders for the profitability of the firm. Finally, investor-owned corporations are subject to taxation at the local, state, and federal levels (Gapenski, 2008). HMA vision states they will lead the hospital industry in quality, clinical metrics, patient outcomes, and customer service. HMA will achieve top tier in the hospital industry and customer satisfaction for their patients, their physicians, and their associates (Health Management Associates, 2011). * * The second health care financial environment to discuss is the not-for-profit, the Internal Revenue Code, Section 501(c)(3), grants tax-exempt status to nonprofit organizations.
* Health care financial environments most common are for- profit, not-for-profit, and government funding. This paper identified one entity from each of these health care financial environments, described the financial structure of each financial environment, identified policies unique to each financial environment, identified financial management practices prevalent in the financial environment, and explained why effective financial management is more difficult in health care than in other industries. The first one is Health Management Associates, Inc. founded in 1977 to own, lease and manage hospitals throughout the United States (Health Management Associates, 2011). Today HMA operates fifty nine hospitals in fifteen states with approximately eighty eight hundred licensed beds. The Company employs approximately thirty two thousands associates and hosts a total medical staff of approximately eight thousands physicians (Health Management Associates, 2011). HMA is a for profit organization with the three key features of investor-owned corporations. First, the owners (the stockholders) of the business are well defined and they exercise control of the firm by voting for directors. Second, the residual earnings of the business belong to the owners, so management is responsible only to the stockholders for the profitability of the firm. Finally, investor-owned corporations are subject to taxation at the local, state, and federal levels (Gapenski, 2008). HMA vision states they will lead the hospital industry in quality, clinical metrics, patient outcomes, and customer service. HMA will achieve top tier in the hospital industry and customer satisfaction for their patients, their physicians, and their associates (Health Management Associates, 2011). * * The second health care financial environment to discuss is the not-for-profit, the Internal Revenue Code, Section 501(c)(3), grants tax-exempt status to nonprofit organizations.
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