How The Hospital Payment Processing Really Works

Hospital Billing
There is no doubt that everyone feels a real jitter and have butterflies in their tummy whenever they visit a hospital either for a planned check up or even during emergencies. The jittery feeling is due to the worry about the hospital bills that they will be facing. It is never an easy task or a layman to calculate approximately what the hospital billing would look like. Most of the times you will feel that the billing done by the hospital are expensive and a bit confusing too. There are plenty of staff in the hospital at the billing section who are trained to help you out know how the billing has been calculated and what are all included in the bill.
Electronic Billing And Payments
Medical billing and hospital payment processing is a fast developing and growing field and it has become a norm in most of the countries all across the globe. As there are rapid advancements in technology, there are also vast improvements in hospital payment processing methods. Now, all the bills pertaining to a patient are filed as hard copies in single folder and are mailed to the insurance provider through e-mail. There are plenty of software that are available that will allow in carrying out the hospital billing on the computer. There are plenty of coding software that are available these days that will help in quick and accurate processing of bills and will also be less time consuming.
There are a lot of hospitals that now accept credit or debit cards from patients and this is considered one of the easiest hospital payment processing method that will save a lot of time both or the patient as well as the hospital. Everything will be done electronically once the patient's card is swiped in the electronic credit card reading machine. The request for issuing the payment pertaining to the bill has to be keyed in and once the bank authorizes the payment electronically, a payment slip will be generated by the machine and the bill amount will be transferred from the patient's account or bank to the hospital's bank account.
Payment From Patients
If the patient is not covered by any medical insurance, then the patient will be needed to pay the hospital amount in advance for planned admissions or during the check in time for emergency cases. Most hospitals all over the globe would accept cash, check, credit or debit cards and even money orders as payments. There are also hospitals that will be offering pay out plans by offering financial assistance to patients who are cash struck and do not have the full amount to pay or their treatment.
Conclusion
With all the latest technologies in place, hospital payment processing is not a difficult or tiresome job anymore. In fact, it has really eased the job and also provides the patients as well as the payment receiver hassle free payment processing which does not include any counting of liquid cash or writing of checks and so on. Everything is doe electronically and in a speedy manner that will save the time o the patients as well as the hospital staff.

It's a wrap, finally

On July 17, the IASB & FASB met to make their last decisions before releasing a revised exposure draft (RED) for the new lease accounting standard. The following decisions were reached (according to meeting notes posted at IASPlus):

Lessee accounting

Statement of financial position (balance sheet)

Assets and liabilities for the two types of leases (finance, also called "interest and amortization" or I&A, and straight line expense (SLE)) will be reported separately, either on the SFP itself or in disclosure notes. Assets are to be presented based on the type of underlying asset.

Statement of cash flows

Cash paid for SLE leases will be reported as an operating activity. It was previously decided that cash paid for I&A leases will be reported as a financing activity for the principal portion, and in accordance with applicable IFRS or US GAAP standards for interest (IFRS permits it as either operating or financing, while US GAAP puts it in financing).

Several board members expressed interest in additional disclosure of cash paid for leases that would distinguish I&A, SLE, short-term leases, and variable lease payments. The staffs will review this and potentially provide a future staff paper for board action.

Disclosure

The maturity analysis (future rent commitments by year for at least 5 years, then combined to expiration) will not be separated between I&A and SLE leases. This was justified by the fact that the liability is calculated the same way for both types of leases. The FASB had previously decided that commitments for services and other non-lease components need to be disclosed; the FASB decided that this disclosure will also be a single report for all leases, not separated between I&A and SLE.

Reconciliation of the opening & closing balances on liabilities will be separated between I&A and SLE leases, because the liabilities themselves are being reported separately.

On the asset side, the boards disagreed. The FASB chose not to require a reconciliation at all. The IASB chose to require separate reconciliations for I&A and SLE leases.

The staff recommended a disclosure table for lease expenses, including amortization and interest for I&A leases, variable lease payments, short-term lease payments, SLE, principal & interest on I&A leases, and SLE cash paid. The boards thought this was overload, and decided only to require disclosure of variable lease payments.

Transition: SLE lease asset

The boards previously changed their approach for transitioning existing operating leases to the new regime: in the original exposure draft, they planned to make the asset and liability equal at the date of initial application, but because that would have front-loaded expenses for all leases, they decided to switch to a "modified retrospective" approach which results in an asset value largely similar to what one would have restating from inception (see my discussion of the details here). With SLE leases, however, front-loading isn't an issue, so the boards approved using the original methodology with the asset and liability equal at the date of initial application (though with an option for a fully retrospective application, which is also permitted for I&A leases). If there's a deferred rent liability/asset due to unequal lease payments, that is applied to the asset.

Lessor accounting

The boards decided that when a lease is terminated early and the lessor takes back the asset, the remaining receivable and the residual should be combined and set up as a re-recognized asset. No gain or loss would be reported on the transaction (though impairment might separately be recognized, if the remaining receivable that's being reclassified is less than the fair value of the leased portion of the asset plus any penalty payments made).

Interim disclosure

For both lessees and lessors, the boards decided that generally interim disclosures (that is, disclosures required during interim reporting periods, such as quarterly reports for US companies) should be handled consistently with existing standards (IAS 34, US GAAP Topic 270, and SEC Regulation S-X, Rule 10-01). However, an additional disclosure for lessors to detail components of lease income was approved. The FASB approved the proposal as presented by the staffs; the IASB preferred to permit a single lease income number in some cases. This leaves a rare non-convergent situation to be dealt with in the post-RED redeliberations.

Next steps

This isn't quite the end of the decision-making process. The FASB will be meeting next week to discuss a few FASB-only issues.

With these decisions complete, the staffs will now assemble all the "tentative" decisions into the form of an exposure draft. The draft will then be circulated to the boards to make sure it accurately reflects the decisions reached, then released to the public. The expectation is that it will be released during Q4, probably in November. There will be a 120-day comment period, which thus would be expected to end in March 2013 (though that might get tweaked because it falls in the middle of annual reporting for companies on a calendar year basis). Once that's complete, figure a month or so for the staffs to compile the results of the comments, so probably in May the boards will start their review and redeliberations. One can expect that there is still going to be some controversy over the decisions, so redeliberations will probably take a few months. At the meeting, two members of each board indicated an intention to dissent from the exposure draft, with an additional member of each board considering dissent; concerns included complexity and cost/benefit, exclusion of variable lease payments, insufficient disclosure, maintaining two types of leases when unified accounting was a key objective originally, and inconsistency between lessor accounting and the concurrent revenue recognition project.

If there are no significant changes, it may be possible to get the final standard approved in 2013, but it would seem to me it's not likely to be out until late in 2013. Given that, it seems almost certain that implementation would be required for 2016 (with restatement of prior years going back two years for most U.S. firms). That makes a total of just under 10 years from the time the project was announced in July 2006 to final implementation; the original plan was to have the final standard released in 2009, with implementation in 2011.... In a webinar today (July 19), the staff indicated that they expect that earlier implementation will be permitted, while non-public entities may get additional time for implementation.

Step By Step Guide On How To Obtain Life Insurance

One of the primary motives why people acquire a insurance policy is the assurance that their dependents will get a prearranged sum of money in the event of their death. Getting a policy is crucial especially if you are the main source of income in your household or family. Apparently, the demise of the breadwinner signifies the loss of income for the family. As they say, life insurance is something that you need to obtain, but hopefully never have to use.
Guide on how to purchase a life insurance:
1. Determine the kind of policy that suits your needs
Term and whole life plan are the common types of policies that you will encounter as you begin shopping for a policy. Term life insurance expires for a definite period of time, such as 10 or 20 years. Conversely, whole life plan covers the policy holder until death. Your choice of policy should be hinge on your personal needs. You may prefer whole life plan or merely need a life plan for 20 to 30 years while rearing children.
2. Search out for free life insurance quotes
Internet has helped buyers get free online quotes without difficulty, but it is still advisable that you seek for the opinion of proficient insurance agents in your community. They can help you understand life plan even more, present you a wide range of options and provide you answer to your queries about certain policies that you cannot access from online quotes. Moreover, try to check with your human resources department at your job to recognize the life insurance options offered there.
3. Fill out the application form
Once you have made up your mind on which policy or insurer you want to choose, you can now start applying for a life plan. This necessitates a preliminary application that will also include few questions concerning your present and past health condition. Insurers make use of the information supplied on the form to help them in creating a policy.
4. Go through a medical exam
Most reputable insurers compel applicants to undergo a medical exam completed before they approve your application. Normally, this test should be paid by the insurance company, which utilizes it to confirm the information on your health history.
5. Understand the premium and coverage before buying it
After taking you medical exam, the insurer will design a policy for you that stipulate your coverage and indicates how much premium will be charged to you. You should get through the policy documents right before you sign it to verify if it suits your needs at a price you can afford.
6. Sign the policy and pay the premium
Lastly, sign the policy papers to obtain insurance coverage and pay the premium. Once you have completed these steps, you already have a life plan that will protect your dependents in case you die.

Mei Mayore is a dedicated life insurance agent who is keen to provide people fast and risk free life insurance quotes. Learn more things on how to achieve maximum savings and claim strategies by visiting Life Insurance Quotes Canada.