Course Syllabus

INDIANA UNIVERSITY NORTHWEST

COLLEGE OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS (SPEA)

SYLLABUS

SPEA H352: HEALTHCARE FINANCE I SECTION 1434

FALL SESSION 2016: AUGUST 23 – DECEMBER 13, 2016

CLASS MEETS TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS

FROM 4:00 PM TO 5:15 PM

DUNES MEDICAL/PROFESSION BUILDING, ROOM 2080

Bulletin Course Description: SPEA-H352: Healthcare Finance 1 (3 credits). A study of the financial management of health care facilities based on generally accepted business principles. Accounting and managerial control of cash, accounts receivable, inventory control, and budgeting and cost control, as well as accounting and evaluation of short- and long-term debt will be examined. Prerequisite - BUS A201.

Instructor: Richard Underkofler, B.S., M.A., University of Iowa

Email: runderko@iun.edu

Office Phone: (219) 980-6695     Home Phone: (312) 550-4478

Office Hours: 2:30 to 3:45 PM, Tuesdays and Thursdays or by appointment at the SPEA Offices, Dunes Medical Professional Building, Room 2101.

 Required Text and Reading Material for the Class:

Fundamentals of HealthCare Finance / Gapenski, Louis C., 2nd Edition 2013 © Health Administration Press (ISBN: 978-1-56793-475-5). The textbook is available for purchase or rent at the Campus Bookstore. It will be on 2-hour reserve at the Campus Library. Compare printed text purchase and rental prices to a 6-month e-text rental at this link: http://www.coursesmart.com/9781567935714

Supplemental readings will be assigned over the semester to cover relevant current healthcare financial management topics in greater detail. The supplemental material will be posted in Canvas. The text, supplemental reading material and notes from class discussion are tools necessary to do well in this course.

Course Overview & Student Learning Outcomes: This is a course for individuals needing basic healthcare finance skills. It will introduce non-financial students, practicing and aspiring healthcare facility managers to fundamental concepts necessary for hospitals and other healthcare organizations (e.g.: nursing homes; assisted living facilities; physicians and other healthcare providers) to succeed in an increasingly competitive and regulated business environment. Students will learn methods of financial management, performance measurement, quality assessment and ethical standards applicable to services of healthcare organizations. Supplemental readings and class discussion will weave discussion and debate about controversial issues currently in the news about healthcare reform (a/k/a Obamacare) into the course. Students will participate in communication assignments, including group and individual class presentation of a paper. Group presentations may be debates, panel discussions or simulated press conferences.

Student Learning Objectives

After successfully completing this course, students should be able to perform (at a basic level) these tasks practiced within healthcare organizations.

• Cite concepts, skills and ethical values necessary to succeed as managers in healthcare organizations
• Define terms used in the vocabulary of healthcare financial management
• Integrate new and evolving policies affecting roles of financial managers by discussion of news reports on topics that apply to healthcare organizations
• Understand why financial managers must be concerned with the assessment and improvement in the quality of healthcare services
• Characterize qualifications and responsibilities of financial managers in supporting the services provided by healthcare organizations
• Compare organizational models that integrate provider services for patient care
• Identify and measure sources of healthcare financing; characterize third-party payers and their methods of payment; apply cost shifting and cost-cutting methods necessary to compensate and account for bad debt and charity care
• Summarize the history of Medicare and Medicaid, eligibility criteria, benefits, sources of financing and attempts to control costs
• Classify costs, allocate costs and understand the relationship of costs to patient volume and revenue to calculate charges for patient service by various methods
• Define sources of working capital and methods of financing cash flow
• Compute and compare methods of inventory valuation
• Apply qualitative and quantitative skills to planning, budgeting, accounting and reporting methods
• Describe components of financial statements and from the data contained in financial statements, use performance ratios to compare financial results of operations to previous periods and to other similar organizations
• Acknowledge material drawn from credible third-party sources consistent with APA citation guides
• Demonstrate effective delivery of oral presentations: logical organization, proper grammar, appropriate word choices and coherent sentence structure
• Use visual aids to enhance oral report presentation

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes:

Class Participation. Each class will begin with a discussion of a current healthcare financial management topic that appeared recently in the news. Students may contribute to this discussion by presenting to the class news reports pertaining to a new or evolving healthcare financial management topic. Up to 10 grade points will be available for participation each class session. Points awarded for class participation may range from “0” if absent; “5” if absent with prior notice and an acceptable explanation; if tardy or leaving class early; to “10” for class attendance and robust participation.

Group Presentations. The class will be divided into small groups to make oral class presentations of a current healthcare financial management topic selected from news articles, videos or the textbook. A designation of group members and the schedule for the group presentations will be formulated at the second class session.

Healthcare Financial Topic Paper & Presentation. Each student will select a healthcare financial topic to analyze and present to the class. The topic may be proposed legislation; a proposed change to an existing program or a new initiative under consideration that will impact operations of healthcare organizations. Students will present their paper to the class at the end of the session. The topic selected must be submitted to me for review and approval at least two weeks before the scheduled presentation date via a Canvas message. Papers analyzing the topic may range from 5 to 10 pages (double-spaced, font size 12). The quality of your writing is more important than the number of pages. Your paper and presentation should include three distinct sections:

1. Problem Analysis: A description of the problem that the policy is attempting to remediate, including data on who is impacted, its size and scope. The paper must identify assumed causes of the problem that the proposed solution is intended to
2. Policy Analysis: Discuss the history of the issue. Explain what events triggered a demand for new or reinvigorated How effective are existing policies and why is change needed? Why is the status quo unacceptable? What will the new policy accomplish? What alternatives were considered? Why is the recommended policy preferred over the alternatives? What are the implementation challenges? What are the potential unintended consequences? How will the effect of the new policy be monitored, measured and evaluated?
3. Political Analysis: Who are the winners and losers? Who will the policy help and who will it hurt? Who are the supporters and opponents identified by interest group and demographics?

Exams. Two take-home exams will be given over the term of the semester and submitted online in Canvas. Each exam will cover text readings, supplemental readings and topics discussed in class up until the date of the exam. Fifty percent (50%) of each exam may consist of true/false; multiple choice and short answer questions. Fifty percent (50%) of the exams will consist of an essay question pertaining to a current healthcare financial management topic. No face-to-face class sessions are scheduled on dates exams are due.

Grading:

Class session attendance is important for assessment of a student’s performance in interacting with other students and your instructor. If a student is absent from class without notice, no points will be awarded for class participation that day and there will be no opportunity to claim credit for the points available for that session. Extra credit work will NOT be available for a student to make up points for class participation, the group presentation, the paper assignment or exams.

I will be using IU’s FLAG Early Alert System to provide real-time feedback on your performance in this course. Periodically throughout the session I will be entering data on factors such as your class attendance, participation, and success with coursework, among other things. This information will provide feedback on how you are faring in the course and offer you suggestions on how you might be able to improve your performance. Students can view faculty assessments through One.IU.edu by typing in Grades in the search box and accessing the appropriate application. The assessments are point-in-time semester assessments and not part of the students’ permanent academic record. Questions about using or viewing the student performance rosters should be directed to the Student Advising Center, Phone: 219-980-6890.

Final grades will be assigned as shown in this table.

Administrative Policies: The purpose of a syllabus is to inform students in a formal way of the nature and content of a course, policies and procedures that will apply and logistics involved in participating in a class. A syllabus also serves as a contract with an instructor pertaining to everything that will be done or required of a student throughout the term of the course.

1. CHHS Code of Conduct. All SPEA students must sign a signature page acknowledging that he or she has reviewed and understands the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) Code of If you have not submitted a signed original copy of the signature page in a previous semester, I will distribute copies of the Code, review, discuss and collect copies of signed signature pages during the first week of class to be placed in your academic files at the SPEA Office.
2. Withdrawal. The last day to eDrop a class and receive a “W” for courses this session is October 23, 2016.
3. If an illness, emergency or conflicting work schedule prevents a student from attending class, notice with an explanation is due to me prior to the absence via a Canvas message to receive grade point credit for the missed class. It is a student’s responsibility to catch up on what may have been missed in class discussion.
4. Attendance and Participation. This course has been approved to enforce the IU Northwest Attendance and Course Commitment Policy. The full text of this policy is available at http:/www.iun.edu/registration/attendance-policies.htm. As a student in this course, you are expected to attend scheduled class meetings and actively participate in all class Students who miss the first week of the semester or who do not attend 50% of the scheduled class meetings before the end of the fourth week of the semester may be subject to administrative withdrawal. Students who are administratively withdrawn from this class after the fourth week will not be eligible for a tuition refund. Administrative withdrawals may have an impact on the student’s financial aid awards and visa status. 
5. Communications. Your IUN email address will be used for student communications. I will generally NOT send announcements or messages to a personal email account. A student may, however, forward messages automatically to a preferred personal email address from an IUN email address or the Canvas class site. Login to Canvas prior to each scheduled class for announcements and messages pertaining to assignments; results of assignments and exams; to post a question and receive a response from me about a question; and to monitor the status of your grade. Checking Canvas prior to a scheduled class is a student responsibility
6. Class Cancellations. A class may be cancelled for a variety of reasons. I will attempt to make an announcement of a cancelled class at least eight (8) hours in advance of its scheduled date and time via a Canvas message to all class participants.
7. Plagiarism. Plagiarism or cheating of any form are serious offenses and may be punished by failure on an exam; failure in a course; and/or expulsion from the University as prescribed by the Indiana University Student Code of Honesty requires that any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged. Offering the work of someone else as one’s own is plagiarism. The language or ideas thus taken from another may range from isolated formulas, sentences, or paragraphs to entire articles copied from books, periodicals, speeches, or the writings of other students. The offering of materials assembled or collected by others in the form of projects or collections without acknowledgment also is considered plagiarism. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas or materials taken from another source is guilty of plagiarism. A SPEA Policy prescribes acknowledgement must be given in APA style.
8. Cheating. Dishonesty of any kind with respect to examinations, course assignments, alteration of records, or illegal possession of examinations shall be considered cheating. It is the responsibility of the student not only to abstain from cheating but, in addition, to avoid the appearance of cheating and to guard against making it possible for others to cheat. Any student who helps another student to cheat is as guilty of cheating as the student he or she assists. The student also should do everything possible to induce respect for the examining process and for honesty in the performance of assigned tasks in or out of class.
9. Incomplete Grade. Students will NOT be given an incomplete grade in the course without sound reason and documented evidence as described in the Student In any case, for a student to receive an incomplete, he or she must have completed a significant portion of the course with a minimum grade of B.
10. Students with Disabilities. If you are a student with a documented disability who will require academic or classroom accommodations in this course, please register with the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disability in the Student Support Services (SSS) Office Located in Hawthorn Hall, Room 237, Phone 219-980-6942. It is a student’s responsibility to inform an instructor of any special needs and to schedule with the instructor or SSS any exam or quiz to be taken according to the given accommodations.
11. Course Evaluation. Many students disregard course evaluations as an optional part of taking a course. At IUN, completing the course evaluations is not optional. Your input, suggestions, opinions matter and are taken seriously. Departments are held accountable for having adequate response rates and instructors are also affected by low response rates. Please do your part in understanding that it is part of your duty as a student to complete every course evaluation, regardless of how you personally feel about the course or the instructor.