Course Title:	RS420 - Financial Management for Health Care Managers
Department:	Rehabilitation Services and Administration

Dale Mueller, EdD, RN, NHA dmueller@canyoncollege.edu http://www.love2learn.com office 909.920.5854 fax 909.920.6046

I. Course Description

RS420 - Financial Management for Health Care Managers
This course introduces the concepts and language of basic managerial financial functions, such as budgeting, accrual accounting and the responsibilities of financial management. Documents that health care managers are likely to encounter, such as a profit-and-loss statement, are introduced in this course. Various methods of payment for services that are used in the field of health care are also discussed.

Basic vocabulary, processes, functions and reports are presented in this course, including financial statements as commonly seen in health care environments, including types of budgets; considerations for cash flow, payables and receivables; and considerations in working with various types of revenue streams. This course is designed to prepare students for more advanced financial concepts to be covered in financial management at the graduate level for agency administrators.

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II. Course Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify components of financial statements and pertinent financial ratios.
• Identify the process used in accrual and cash accounting, and the associated responsibilities concerning accurate reflections of organizational financial health.
• Discuss the cycle of working capital, cash flow, receivables and payables management and the contributory roles of staff in this cycle.
• Discuss how concepts of present and future value of money, annuities, and capital financing are applied to agency or program financial decisions.
• Discuss the relationships of price, fixed and variable cost, and quantity relative to breakeven analysis in agency or program financial planning.
• Examine a basic operations budget for a selected agency or program.
• Explain the function and purpose of budgets as management tools.
• Describe the components and implications of various types of payment systems for program services.

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III. Overview

This course is intended as an introduction to vocabulary, processes, functions, and reports commonly encountered in financial operations of health care program or agency settings, and is designed to assist students to become familiar with the financial aspects of operational decisions that may arise. It is not necessary that the student be proficient in accounting or advanced math, but a willingness to work through the homework problems and explore examples in the textbook and Internet sources will be helpful in achieving mastery of this basic information.

This course is designed for the independent study student, so assignments are structured to be done individually. In the field of health care, and in particular agencies that receive grants or government funding, it is critical that managers and staff decision-makers become familiar with ethical financial practices and sound financial accountability.

At no time during this course will students be asked to share any financial or other proprietary information regarding their work setting or organizations where they may be involved; any information shared in this course is available for public access, either from the textbook, Internet sources, or freely contributed by students for open discussion.

This course has weekly homework which form the basis for student/instructor dialog. There are weekly quizzes, which in aggregate contribute to a midterm (4th week) and final exam (8th week) score. Assignment detail is provided for each week.

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IV. Textbook Online Bookstore

Either the first or second edition of this textbook may be used for this course. Students should select one of the editions as listed here:

Financial Management of Health Care Organizations: An Introduction to Fundamental Tools, Concepts, and Applications, Second Edition, by William Zelman, Michael Mccue, Alan Millikan, and Noah Glick. Blackwell Publishing, 2002/2003.   ISBN-13: 9780631230984  
ISBN: 063123098X

Zelman, E.; McCue, M; & Millikan, A. (1998). Financial Management of Health Care Organizations: An Introduction to Fundamental Tools, Concepts, and Applications. Blackwell Publishers: Malden, MA. (ISBN: 1-55786-709-7)

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V. Weekly Assignment Objectives

Upon successful completion of Week 1 assignments, the student should be able to:

• Identify key factors that have led to rising health care costs (Ch 1)
• Identify key approaches to controlling health care costs (Ch 1)
• Identify key ethical issues resulting from attempts to control costs (Ch 1)
• Identify the four basic financial statements common to all organizations (Ch 2)
• Identify the basic financial statements particular to not-for-profit business-oriented health care organizations (Ch 2)
• Define basic financial terms, concepts, and processes

Upon successful completion of Week 2 assignments, the student should be able to:

• Describe the basic process involved in accrual accounting (Ch 3)
• Identify relationships between accounting transactions and financial statements (Ch 3)
• Identify key financial ratios used to analyze financial health (Ch 4)
• Discuss applications of financial ratio analysis

Upon successful completion of Week 3 assignments, the student should be able to:

• Understand working capital management strategies (Ch 5)
• Understand receivables and payables management (Ch 5)
• Define sources of cash (Ch 5)
• Discuss considerations of facility management that impact working capital management

Upon successful completion of Week 4 assignments, the student should be able to:

• Discuss administrative decisions and alternatives based on concepts of present and future value (Ch 6)
• Define key terms in health care finance
• Demonstrate applications of concepts and operations as applied to given scenarios

Upon successful completion of Week 5 assignments, the student should be able to:

• Define fixed and variable costs. (Ch 9)
• Construct and interpret a breakeven chart (Ch 9)
• Demonstrate applications of breakeven analysis applied to selected healthcare scenarios

Upon successful completion of Week 6 assignments, the student should be able to:

• Describe the planning and control cycle and describe the key dimensions of budgeting (Ch 10)
• Identify the major types of budgets and their functions (Ch 10)
• Discuss the components of an operating budget and the applications to sound healthcare administration and management (Ch 10)

Upon successful completion of Week 7 assignments, the student should be able to:

• Identify characteristics of major payment systems in use in the United States today (Ch 12)
• Discuss the role of the health care administrator in managing, controlling, and planning within an environment with varying payment systems in effect (Ch 12)

Upon successful completion of Week 8 assignments, the student should be able to:

• Assess core understanding of applications of financial terms, processes, principles, and requirements as applied to a selected health care setting

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IV. Course Policies

On-Line Participation. Since this course is offered over the Internet, which allows students to participate at "any time, any where," it is important to plan your time carefully. Students are expected to send required assignments to the instructor by the due dates. Students are expected to make use of the Internet information available that will enhance learning in this course. Where possible, to provide a context for the application of the topics covered in this class, it is encouraged that students seek contact professionally and collegially with those individuals responsible for finance decisions at their own place of work to gain a better understanding of the applications and documents discussed in this course.

Course Week and Due Dates. Monday is the first of the course week, and Sunday is the last day of the course week. Assignments scheduled for completion during a class week should be sent to the instructor via email or fax by end of the day Sunday, determined by your own time zone. If a student is sending assignments through the postal service, please make prior arrangements with instructor, as there is no postal delivery on Sunday. The student is to understand that unless the instructor authorizes a time extension, all assignments received past its due date will receive a grade score penalty. The student will receive a confirmation of receipt from the instructor within 72 hours of sending the assignment. If the instructor has not replied within 72 hours to the student, it is the student's responsibility to follow-up on all submitted assignments and email messages sent to the instructor.

Submitting Assignments. Students may prepare work in MSWord or Excel (any version) and send as an email attachment. If you use another word processing program, please save as a .rtf file. Please include name, reply address, title of assignment, title of course, and date submitted on the document itself, in addition to the email text. Please put "HS420" in the subject line of your email.

Late Assignment Penalties. Weekly assignments and quizzes must be received by the instructor not later than Sunday midnight (your time zone) of the week assigned. Assignments received after the due date (late homework) will incur a point penalty at the discretion of the instructor. Point penalties for late work may range anywhere from a few points deducted from final score to possible zero points as final score for the entire assignment. Students who anticipate that their schedule may cause work to be submitted after due date are advised to contact instructor at least one week in advance, as in special circumstances an extension may be permitted. No class-work posted after the last Sunday of the online term will be accepted. No extensions will be granted without prior contact with the instructor, and without at least seven days advance notice. Instructor discretion regarding point penalties for any late work will be considered final.

Discussion Assignments. Discussion questions are part of the weekly homework assignment. Wherever possible, students should relate the discussion quesstions to a scenario or setting in the field of rehabilitative services that is similar to the student's present or future employment. The discussion questions are designed to allow for exploration and application of the textbook concepts.

Absentee Policy. While this course is designed to be completed through independent study, "attendance" is recorded through assignment submissions in a timely manner to the instructor's email address (or via post or fax), and through discussion question posts where requested. However, please note that any student who has not participated (completed assignments) for 14 consecutive days without prior discussion with the instructor regarding such absence shall be recommended for administrative withdrawal. The school shall make recommendations to the instructor as to what action if any will be taken.

Academic Honesty. Canyon College policies are in effect. All work must be your own, unless the instructor authorizes collaboration, in which case you must, in writing, acknowledge the help you have received. Presenting as one's own the words, ideas, or expression of another in any form is cheating through plagiarism, and will not be tolerated. The claim of ignorance is no excuse.

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V. Grading

Assignments will be graded based on completeness, correctness and timeliness of submissions.There is a total of 100 points possible.

Homework.
There are eight homework assignments in this course, one each academic week.
Each homework assignment is worth 5 points (total = 40 points possible).

Quizzes.
There are six quizzes throughout the course.
Each quiz is worth 10 points (total = 60 points) possible.
Point totals for the quizzes given in weeks 2, 3, and 4 and the homework assignments in weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4 are equal to the "midterm exam" grade.
Point totals for the quizzes given in weeks 6, 7, and 8 and homework assignments in weeks 5, 6, 7, and 8 are equal to the "final exam" grade.
If any of the six quizzes are not taken, a zero will be assigned for that week in calculating the interim grades.

Final Letter Grade.
Letter grades will be assigned at the conclusion of the eight weeks based on cumulative points achieved over the entirety of the eight week course and includes all assignments, qulzzes and discussion questions. The grading scale based on 100 possible points is as follows:

A = 95 points to 100 points

A - = 90 points to 94 points

B = 85 points to 89 points

B - = 80 points to 84 points

C = 75 points to 79 points

C - = 70 points to 74 points

D = 60 points to 69 points

F = below 60 points

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