Like all other industries, healthcare is a business. Each year the cost of healthcare increases, for example the average cost of healthcare in 2012, was on average, $8,000 per person and is projected to be $13,000 per person in 2018 (Sherman, 2012). To stay viable for the future, hospitals must find ways to cut costs that do not impact patient care to combat the tremendous hits to their reimbursements. In healthcare, there is an overused phrase “No money, no mission” to help those making decisions and those impacted by the decisions related to finance (Sherman, 2012). Even though this is an overused concept, it is true. Strong financial management is essential in all healthcare environments-for profit, not for profit, or publicly financed organizations (Sherman, 2012). In the current healthcare climate, nursing managers as well as clinical nurses should be aware of healthcare finances.  With the continual decline of reimbursement andfinancial incentives that are tied to quality and patient satisfaction outcomes,healthcare institutions, providers and nursing must work together to get paid for services (Muller &Karsten, 2012). There were probably not many nurses and other healthcare providers, early on in their careers, that thought that healthcare finance would be essential to the care they provide to their patients, but do now. Nursing leaders are essential to the financial viability in healthcare organizations, but to be the most effective they need to be more fluent in the language of finance (Muller &Karsten, 2012).

Purpose of this Course

The purpose of this course is to bring knowledge and information to nurses and healthcare providers about healthcare finance and the role that we all play in the financial future of our organizations. 

Objectives

• To define financial terms that are used in healthcare
• To have knowledge of market share and payer mix
• To understand the financial implication of over staffing or unnecessary healthcare costs
• To understand our role in healthcare finance