Financial and Managerial Accounting in Healthcare

Build the skills to evaluate healthcare contracts, model costs, and set sustainable prices. You’ll start with risk‑based (capitated) contracts—how revenue is recorded, how medical claims expense is estimated (RBUC/IBNR), and how to account for loss‑generating arrangements—so you can quantify financial risk and performance under value‑based care. Next, transition into managerial accounting to classify fixed, variable, and mixed costs; apply cost‑volume‑profit (CVP) analysis; and see how reimbursement type (fee‑for‑service vs. capitation) affects profitability and decision‑making. Then, master departmental costing and cost allocation. Practice the Direct and Step‑Down methods, understand when and why allocation choices matter, and learn how cost pools and cost drivers (e.g., square footage, revenue) shape service line profitability. Finally, apply these tools to pricing strategy. Work through price‑setter vs. price‑taker scenarios, bundled pricing, marginal vs. full‑cost pricing, and sensitivity analysis to establish breakeven and profit‑targeted prices and to negotiate feasible contract terms. By the end, you’ll be able to evaluate contracts, allocate costs fairly, and determine prices that align with financial and strategic goals. Complete the full specialization to become eligible for Credit‑By‑Exam toward university credit.

Strengthen your ability to plan, budget, and evaluate long‑term financial decisions in healthcare organizations. This course introduces the full financial planning cycle, beginning with the role of strategic planning, operational budgets, and the link between organizational goals and resource allocation. You will learn how healthcare organizations build statistics, revenue, and expense budgets; apply budgeting approaches such as output/input, activity‑based, incremental, and minimum‑level methods; and use variance analysis to monitor performance and guide corrective action. You will then transition to capital budgeting, exploring how organizations assess major investments in buildings, equipment, technology, and new service lines. Topics include evaluating replacement vs. expansion decisions, estimating incremental cash flows, performing payback analysis, and calculating net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) to determine financial feasibility. You will also examine funding sources, risk considerations, project scoring, and post‑audit processes that help improve long‑term decision‑making. By the end of this course, you will be able to develop operational budgets, evaluate capital project proposals, and support strategic financial decisions. Completing the full specialization qualifies you to pursue Credit‑By‑Exam toward university credit.