Success In Today’s Healthcare Industry Takes Great Accounting
Today’s healthcare industry faces numerous challenges, from the ongoing pandemic to sudden staffing shortages to declining revenues. And beyond these immediate forces, the healthcare industry as a whole is undergoing a transformation driven by things like technology, legislation, and consumer demand. So much changing all at once makes successes harder to sustain, even for providers and practitioners that have been secure in the past. An industry in flux will create new winners and losers. The question is how to stay on the winning side?
The Increasing Importance of Healthcare Accounting
Accounting is becoming increasingly important (and challenging) for everyone in healthcare. The economic disruption caused by the pandemic can’t be overstated. And while many providers have seen revenues fall, others have seen them surge, and in all cases they have defied expectations. Exceptional financial management becomes vital when costs and revenues continue to be unpredictable and forecasting of any kind feels unreliable.
Important as accounting may be, it comes with some significant challenges over and above those caused by Covid. There are massive compliance obligations at major hospitals, small medical offices, and everyone in between to keep data complete, secure, and transparent – and anything less leads to huge penalties. Keeping compliant while conducting accounting not just successfully but strategically becomes harder for anyone with multiple locations or multiple-entities of any kind. Other factors like staff turnover and manual processes only add to the hurdles of healthcare accounting.
It’s an overstatement to say that accounting determines success or failure in today’s (and tomorrow’s) healthcare industry. That said, every success will excel at accounting.
Effective Healthcare Accounting – 2 Key Components
More than just “getting good” at accounting, providers of all kinds will need to emphasize two key components. They help navigate turbulent, transformational times while being largely immune to staff and budget changes. Get these right:
- Processes – The right accounting processes, policies, and procedures ensure that accounting meets the highest standards no matter who is conducting it or what’s happening around it. Clear and comprehensive policies will be important for keeping accounting compliant, efficient, and strategic even as the broader organization undergoes change. Policies will also keep accounting updated, integrated, and organized so that decision makers have the best financial insights available.
- Tools – The right accounting software equips healthcare accountants with tools tailored to the challenges and opportunities of the present. More than a basic accounting toolkit, it has features relevant to the healthcare industry specifically and capabilities appropriate for any organization with mature financial responsibilities. Automation saves time, data integration extends visibility, and powerful analytics answer the unknown. This may mean replacing the outdated, under-powered, or irrelevant software in place right now.
Even knowing what needs to be done, improving accounting processes and tools won’t be easy for healthcare accountants with few resources to spare right now. That’s where Dean Dorton comes in. Our team includes experts in healthcare accounting, finance, and technology, any or all of whom can help healthcare providers take their accounting to where it needs to be – and beyond. Contact us.
Philip Massey,
Software Services Director
pmassey@ddaftech.com • 919.796.5408