The Federal Financial Regulations in Healthcare Facilities

Healthcare Facility Regulation (HFR), is the division of the Department of Community Health (DCH) which is responsible for licensing, planning, certification and oversight of several health care services and facilities. The financial control and regulation becomes a critical aspect within the healthcare facility as stipulated by the federal government due to the healthcare facility’s acceptance to its assignments and re-imbursements (Finkler, Kovner & Jones, 2007). The HFR division outlines the laws in regulation of the healthcare facilities but not limited the financial control, which the facilities must be well-versed and familiar with as they impact greatly on the financial management of the facility.

This paper gives the overview of the current federal laws and events impacting the healthcare facility operations. A further highlight on the various aspects imposing impact on the financial decisions of the healthcare facility.

Federal financial regulations

Reporting requirements

The reports made by the Directors shall be done not later than March 31 of every year. The Director submits a report to the Congress with regards to the implementation of this particular requirement. The report by the Director may include, the report of the financial management status of the organization and the 5-year financial management plan as stipulated in the United States Code (Field, 2007). On the other hand the report done by the Inspector General shall be reported to the Congress instances and the underlying reasons when an agency has not interfered with the intermediate target dates as established in the remediation. In addition, the reports by the Comptroller General are scheduled to be submitted not later than October 1, of every year. That is, the Comptroller General of the United States reports to the appropriate committees of the Congress on various aspects which include; whether the Federal government financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the set accounting standards, and the adequacy aspects of the set accounting standards of the Federal Government.

Accounting and auditing standards

According to the studies by Dunham-Taylor & Pinczuk (2006), relevant auditing and accountability standards are critical to the CFO Act on audit initiatives and financial statements. The agency financial systems are called upon to comply with the applicable accounting principles, requirements and standards. Additionally, the audits of financial statements that are prepared shall to done according to the generally accepted government auditing standards.

Conformity requirements

This regulation ensure that various agencies of the economy, for instance the healthcare facilities’ financial management systems, strictly comply significantly with the requirements stipulate by the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act. There are also outlined summary statement of the efforts put underway towards remedying the no-compliance of the various organizations and institutions (Safian & Safian, 2009).

Statutory requirements

This states that, nothing within the Federal Financial Management Act shall be construed as a measure to deviate from the statutory requirements in relation to the applicable Federal Financial assistance programs.

Requirements upon the Collection of Financial Information

Neither part, nor section of the FFMIA shall be interpreted to prevent the Director or any Federal agency from collecting the financial information, or to exempt any recipient of the Federal financial assistance from issuing, providing or disseminating information which is required for the purposes of review of the financial quality or integrity of services or of an activity assisted by the Federal financial assistance program (Finkler, Kovner & Jones, 2007).

The drive of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) is to ensure advancement in the Federal financial management by ascertaining that the Federal financial management systems deliver reliable, timely and accurate financial management information to the different government managers (United States, 2000). The requirements and intent of this Act rates beyond the directives of the Government Management Reform Act (GMRA) and the CFO Act towards publishing audited financial reports.

This paper identifies that the compliance with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) provides the basis for the ongoing use of accurate, reliable and timely financial information by the relevant stakeholders of the economy especially within the healthcare service provision facilities, for instance, corporate managers, shareholders and the general public.

 

 

 

Scroll to Top