Healthcare Accounting FASB Updates’ objective is to provide financial statement users with greater transparency about an entity’s net patient service revenue.

Current healthcare accounting practices and health care entities recognize patient service revenue at the time the services are rendered regardless of whether the entity expects to collect that amount. Stakeholders raised concerns that such health care accounting practices result in a gross-up of patient service revenue and the related provision for bad debts, according to Healthcare Accountants in Miami. Additionally, because health care entities make their own judgments regarding adjustments to revenue and bad debts, those judgments are different from one health care entity to another and comparability is impaired, making analysis difficult for healthcare accounting and financial statement users.

The objective of this Update is to provide financial statement users with greater transparency about a health care accounting entity’s net patient service revenue and the related allowance for doubtful accounts. This Update provides information to assist healthcare accountants and financial statement users in assessing an entity’s sources of net patient service revenue and related changes in its allowance for doubtful accounts. The amendments in healthcare accounting require health care entities that recognize significant amounts of patient service revenue at the time the services are rendered even though they do not assess the patient’s ability to pay to present the provision for bad debts related to patient service revenue as a deduction from patient service revenue (net of contractual allowances and discounts) on their statement of operations.

Healthcare Accounting Who Is Affected by the Amendments in This Update?

The amendments in this Update affect entities within the scope of Topic 954, Health Care Accounting, that recognizes significant amounts of patient service revenue at the time services are rendered even though the entities do not assess a patient’s ability to pay. All other entities would continue to present the provision for bad debts (including bad debts associated with patient service revenue) as an operating expense.

What Are the Main Provisions?

The amendments in this Update require healthcare accountants to change the presentation of their statement of operations by reclassifying the provision for bad debts associated with patient service revenue from an operating expense to a deduction from patient service revenue (net of contractual allowances and discounts). Additionally, healthcare accounting entities are required to provide enhanced disclosure about their policies for recognizing revenue and assessing bad debts. The amendments also require disclosures of patient service revenue (net of contractual allowances and discounts) as well as qualitative and quantitative information about changes in the allowance for doubtful accounts.

How Do the Main Provisions of Healthcare Accounting Differ from Current U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and Why Are They an Improvement?

The Health Care Accounting amendments in this Update change the presentation of the statement of operations and add new disclosures that are not required under current GAAP for entities within the scope of this Update. The provision for bad debts associated with patient service revenue for certain entities is required to be presented on a separate line as a deduction from patient service revenue (net of contractual allowances and discounts) in the statement of operations. This change in the presentation of the statement of operations will be an improvement from the current GAAP because it will result in the presentation of an amount of net patient service revenue (after any provision for bad debts) that is closer to the amount that the health care entity expects to collect, according to Healthcare Accountants Accountants in Miami. The new disclosures will assist users of financial statements to better understand how health care entities recognize patient service revenue and assess bad debts.

When Will the Amendments Be Effective?

For public entities, the healthcare accounting amendments in this Update are effective for fiscal years and interim periods within those fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2011, with early adoption, permitted. For nonpublic entities, the health care accounting amendments are effective for the first annual period ending after December 15, 2012, and interim and annual periods thereafter, with early adoption permitted. Healthcare accountants adopting the amendments to the presentation of the provision for bad debts related to patient service revenue in the statement of operations should be applied retrospectively to all prior periods presented. The disclosures required by the amendments in this Update should be provided for the period of adoption and subsequent reporting periods.

How Do the Healthcare Accounting Provisions Compare with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)?

IFRS does not currently require similar presentation or disclosures as set forth in the amendments in this Update. However, the Boards recently completed deliberations on an Exposure Draft, Revenue Recognition (Topic 605): Revenue from Contracts with Customers. In deliberations of that Exposure Draft, the Boards tentatively decided to present impairment losses (that is, bad debts) from contracts with customers as a separate line item adjacent to the revenue line item (as contra revenue), consistent with the provisions of this Update. In addition, the Boards tentatively decided that disaggregated revenue information should be disclosed. The Boards plan to reexpose the tentative decisions reached in deliberations of that Exposure Draft in the second half of 2011.