Accounting and Budgeting in Healthcare Companies

The course in Accounting and Financial Reporting in Health Care Companies characterises the Management of Health Systems and Organisations (MASS) curriculum by providing students with practical tools for understanding the quantitative and qualitative dimensions relating to the economic performance and financial situation of companies. These skills are fundamental in understanding how economic quantities, learned and analysed in other courses of the curriculum, are formed within different companies and how they are influenced by internal decision-making policies. The aim of the course is to provide students with the theoretical foundations, practical skills and best practices for the study and analysis of the financial statements of healthcare companies and companies operating in the health sector, with an in-depth study of the double-entry accounting method and the principles governing the formation of financial statements, in order to understand the trend and assess, in a historical and prospective manner, the policies and decisions necessary for the growth and well-being of the company in order to achieve its general and mission objectives. This ultimate objective is pursued through the study and exercise of the learners on the accounting of administrative facts according to a rational logic and on the understanding of the purpose of the financial statements, of the logic of its values, on the preparation of the financial statements documents according to the principles and regulations in force.

At the end of the course the student will be able to:
Knowledge and understanding: Understand the mechanics and fundamental relationships between financial statement quantities and the general accounting system;
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- To account for the main administrative facts using the double entry method
- To draw up and understand a financial statement according to the accounting principles applicable to the different types of organisations in the health sector
- To read a financial statement and understand the main organisations' balances and to propose suitable solutions to different situations of patrimonial, economic and financial imbalance.
Critical and judgement abilities: to know how to classify correctly the administrative facts in the general accounting system and to use the financial statement to analyse summarily the health status of the examined organisation.
Ability to communicate what has been learnt: To comment on the main management areas relevant to the organisations' activity and to be able to communicate correctly and clearly the activity of a company by means of the accounting methodology.
Ability to continue the study autonomously: To identify potential corrective and improvement policies for the organisation itself based on the tools learnt.