Financial Condition of the Health Services Organization

For PART ONE, you will be expected to investigate the financial condition of the health services organization (HSO) Grady Health or Wellstar.
You are expected to submit a Microsoft Word document explicitly addressing the following:

1. Using Grady Health (https://www.gradyhealth.org/) or Wellstar (https://www.wellstar.org/) as the HSO, in a paragraph, share the name of the organization and provide a high-level overview of what kind of organization it is (e.g., home health, hospice, tertiary care facility, long-term care, subacute care, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, etc.) and the segments of the population that it supports.
   a. One of the best ways to understand a company’s financial health is to review its financial statements, including the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. These statements provide information about the company’s assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, and cash flow. You can typically find these statements in a company’s annual report if non-profit.
   b. For publicly traded HSOs, regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can provide additional information about the company’s financial performance, management, and risks. These filings include the annual report, 10-K, 10-Q, and proxy statement
2. To gain a better understanding of the financial condition of your chosen health services organization, its budget preparation process, and fiscal planning strategies, you will develop five questions that you will answer as part of your investigation. Ideally, these would be questions you would ask a management official responsible for the financial planning of the organization. It is important that you provide a brief explanation for why you chose to include each of the 5 questions.
   a. Think about questions that will give you greater insight into what the company looks for when preparing their annual budget, their fiscal planning strategies, and how they monitor their financial condition throughout the year and make necessary adjustments.
   Scoring
   • Wrote 3-4 sentences healthcare or more than four that clearly identified the chosen healthcare organization and provided a high-level overview of what kind of organization it is and who the organization serves.
   • Developed five questions that can be researched or asked of the finances of the organization. The questions touched on each of the following:
   o Insight into what the company looks for when preparing their yearly budget,
   o their fiscal planning strategies, and
   o how they monitor their financial condition throughout the year and make adjustments as needed.
   o Provided rationale for each question
   PART TWO of TWO
   You will then write a three-page paper in which you include each of the following components:
   • Develop an introduction to your chosen healthcare organization.
   o The name of the selected organization and background information, such as its location, size, focus, services provided, demographics of patients served, for-profit or nonprofit status, et cetera.
   o Indicate whether the organization has a separate finance or business department and, if so, who is responsible for the department.
   o Any other information that may help explain the chosen organization. For example, is it unique in how its finances are managed? If so, how
   • Develop research-based answers to the five previously created questions.
   o A response to each of the five questions you created in PART ONE. This should include specific information pertaining to the chosen healthcare organization’s budget preparation process, fiscal planning strategies, and how the financial condition of the organization is routinely monitored and corrective actions are taken when necessary.
   • Assess any differences and similarities between what you have learned from your research.
   o This is the section of the paper where you assess any differences between what you have learned in chapters 1-4 in Gapenski’s Healthcare Finance and what is reflected in your research. This is also an opportunity to identify connections between cost and quality and explore the interplay of performance improvement, regulatory compliance, provider relationships, and payors. Keep in mind that the background and context of the organization play a role in how these pieces fit together.
   Resources
   Kristin L. Reiter, & Paula H. Song. (2021). Gapenski’s Healthcare Finance: An Introduction to Accounting and Financial Management, Seventh Edition: Vol. Seventh edition. AUPHA/HAP Book. ***chapters 1-4 are attached

There are a few ways to access public information on health services organizations.
• Google Operator Search: You can use symbols or specific words in your Google search to make results more precise. For healthcare organizations’ finances:
o you would use the following search to look within their website for financials: = site:communityhospitalname.org “financial statements”
o To narrow your search even further, you could add filetype: to the end of your search to look for specific files. For example, filetype: pdf.
• EMMA: EMMA (Electronic Municipal Market Access) is a great resource for locating reports on large nonprofit hospitals. Simply use the “browse issuers” at the top, and then click on the state your hospital is located in. From there a populated list of bond issuers within the state appears. Many of them are just the city name, but it is easiest to put the word health in the “Search within this list:” box to narrow it down to bond issuers for hospitals. On the next page in the same search box, you can put the name of your hospital and you will select the most recent result. This will take you to a page with different tabs containing financial information.
• EDGAR Report: All companies are required to fill out periodic EDGAR reports through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This applies to public, for-profit organizations. You can learn more about the reports, how to read them, and how to access them at the SEC’s Filings & Forms.
• GuideStar: GuideStar offers a way to look for finances from nonprofit healthcare organizations.

Scoring
• Developed an introduction to the chosen healthcare organization including the name, background information such as its location, size, focus, services provided, demographics of the patients served, for-profit or nonprofit status, et cetera. Also indicated whether the organization has a separate finance or business department, and if so, who is responsible for the department
• Developed research-based answers to the five previously created questions. Responses included specific information pertaining to the chosen healthcare organization’s budget preparation process, fiscal planning strategies, and how the financial condition of the organization is routinely monitored, and corrective actions are taken when necessary.
• Assessed any differences and similarities between what you have learned from the text (attached ch 1-4 powerpoints) with what you have learned in your research. Specifically identified connections between cost and quality and explore the interplay of performance improvement, regulatory compliance, provider relationships and payors and how the background and context of the organization play a role in how these pieces fit together.
• If any sources outside of Grady, Wellstar, or provided text are used, these are peer-reviewed and published within the last five years.