A Report On Healthsouth Used Bad Debt Reserves Essay

On an overcast afternoon in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, March 28, 2003, Richard Okumoto intently studied a set of hard-copy accounting documents called “adjusting journal entries” spread out on his desk. He had been appointed chief financial officer (CFO) of Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (ESI), a multi-million dollar equipment manufacturer, just a few weeks earlier. Okumoto was in the midst of closing the company’s books for the third quarter of fiscal year 2003, which ended February 28. An experienced executive who had served as CFO for several other technology firms, Okumoto was familiar with the task, which normally would be routine. But this time, he

When analysts question a firm’s earnings quality, it raises concerns regarding under or over aggressive accounting practices that may be allowing the firm to manipulate the earnings. Earnings quality is defined as the strength of the current earnings in being used to predict future earnings and cash flows. Since earning quality is indicative of future performance, analysts are more likely to address issues that have substantial impact on the earnings quality. An issue arises when the nature of the earnings is questioned. While permanent earnings are part of normal operations, any irregular, one time earnings can skew the earnings, making the firm look more profitable than it is. This is due to the inability to recreate similar one-time transactions that will give rise to such numbers. Investors prefer predictable

Organizational misconduct is the chief cause behind corporate accounting scandals. The trusted executives of the corporation participation in actions during a scandal are corrupt and illegal. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is typically the government agency that investigates such scandals. One of the most notorious corporate accounting scandals in the United States is the HealthSouth Corporation scandal of 2003. HealthSouth Corporation is one of the United States largest health care providers with locations nationwide. A deeper inspection of the HealthSouth scandal is needed to understand how it transpired by assessing how it was executed, the accounting issues and root of the issue, how it was exposed, the results to the company and its officers, and warranted ramifications as an outcome of the scandal.

Debt collections in the Medical field affects millions of people from all life styles, it’s a big problem that I don’t see an end to. There are situations that we can control regarding our own health state but there are unforeseen circumstances, which lead to having medical debt. There are laws that protect a consumer but not everyone is aware of the kind of protection. We need to all educate ourselves on medical debt collections and the process.

Therefore the annual interest rate is 8% and the effective annual rate compounded quarterly is 8.24%

1.The Days Receivables increase, again effectively removing millions in cash from the facility and leaving it in the hands of the payers. Due to the accounting method used at the hospital (Provision for Doubtful Accounts is shown as an “expense” and does not directly reduce “Net Patient Revenue”), the effect of the $4,224 audit adjustment was not as apparent in this ratio.

For example the extra charge for maintenance accumulated from last year and for this year should be equally divided and not charged to the first quarter only. Similarly, cost of relocating the Southern Paper Sioux Springs office that has been charged to the first quarter, had been the expenditure incurred last year. It should not have been included in the first quarter. No doubt these are good accounting practices but nevertheless reverting the charges to their respective results would not compromise GAAP practice. Unrealized income would be better off transferred to the next or the last quarter as the income received would not materialize until at the end of the year. Including the dividend from the company's Brazilian unit would not help increase profitability at the end of the year unless the company is assured of its profitability. As of now it needs to balance its accounts before it can estimate correct profit level at the end of the year. With regard to the obsolete inventories, there is no alternative course of action but to write-off from this

Information based on accrual accounting has historically and empirically provided a better indication of a company’s ability to generate cash flows than information gathered under the cash method. If there is not inter-period allocation, then the information is not as meaningful and will result in a mismatching of economic benefits

Government financed health care typically has more control to place limitations on care offered to patients and doctors in order to keep costs down. Since payers must try to deliver the most care for the

The following pages present a brief analysis of sample data from one healthcare organization. Accompanying this written report are spreadsheets of the company's financial data its balance sheet and its statement of revenue and expenses that provide not only the figures from the audited reports of the hospital examined, but also show the change from year to year on each item as both a dollar amount and a percentage. Changes of more than five percent are considered worthy of discussion, and as these documents show much

Increase in the profits above the actual budget can be attributed to 20% increase in sales in 2009. Although Jean’s profits were above the actual budget, French Division’s earnings were much lower than what it could have been, had they budgeted for the actual volume of sales that they ended up selling. We can partly attribute this decrease in earnings to the fact

Support: The Company’s revenues increased considerably (19%). However, the Accounts receivables also increased significantly (38%). Increase in revenues are generally associated with a proportional increase in the allowance for doubtful debts. By not reporting a significant ‘allowable for bad debt accounts’, the company is able to overstate its profits and could be a cause for concern in the long run, if the receivables turn out to be bad.

Google’s total assets have steadily increased dating back from 2008 to 2012. Some key figures to point out in their assets are the slow growth between the second half of 2008

As stated in Exhibit 3, Earnings management is the managerial use of discretion to influence reported earnings. Within the accrual accounting system, managers have significant discretion with their firms’ accounting choices. Management has the ability to make choices that can opportunistically lead to higher or lower reported earnings. Richard 's and Ira Zar’s (CFO) actions would not change if these results were the result of GAAP flexibility because he violated the rules of accounting, the conceptual framework principle of neutrality in numerous ways to report the financial results that CA did under false pretenses. It would be one thing if CA garnered these results through legitimate business decisions versus using accounting tactics like changes in accounting estimates or outright fraud as in the use of the 35 day Month. The purpose of which was solely to allow CA to meet or exceed analysts’ estimates.

On March 19 of the year 2003, Securities and Exchange Commission brought the trading of HealthSouth to an end on the New York stock exchange, charging the company for inflating its earnings by more than 10 percent and overstated its profits by more than $2.5 billion between 1999 and 2002. HealthSouth’s trading reached to $30.81 in the year 1998, but ever since the trading of the company has been put to an end it reached to $3.91 per share. One week later, Owens pleaded guilty to changing and editing the company’s financial statements.