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Healthcare

Finance for clinics and hospitals, where the payer decides the cash cycle

A hospital's revenue is recognised at discharge and collected whenever the payer decides. We build the reporting and controls around that gap: TPA ageing, disallowance tracking, doctor payouts that reconcile, and department-level contribution.

Clinic/hospital billingDoctor payoutsInventoryPayrollCompliance coordination
The 5th Quadrant approach+

The payer decides the cash cycle.

Cash · insurance · third-party administrator

01Case-level ageing02Disallowance by payer03Department contribution

At a glance

Typical blind spot

Third-party administrator receivables are tracked as one balance rather than aged by case.

First workstream

Revenue and collection

Useful reporting

Payer mix and case-level receivable ageing.

9 trades

Each trade runs on different numbers, so each has its own page

Open the one that matches your business. Each sets out how the money moves, where it usually breaks down and what we would do first.

Multispecialty hospitalsMost hospitals accept package and scheme rates without knowing what a case costs; costing the high-volume packages from bed days, theatre time and consumables shows which rates pay.View trade ↗Specialty hospitalsIn a specialty hospital one expensive service line carries the business, and costing each procedure from equipment time, implants and specialist fees shows whether it repays the investment.View trade ↗Diagnostic chainsDiagnostic networks are often measured by centres opened rather than what each earns; costing tests from reagent to report and centres from sample to settlement shows where expansion pays.View trade ↗IVF centresIVF packages are often sold before anyone knows what a cycle costs or what refunds may follow, and cycle costing with a package liability register closes both gaps.View trade ↗Dental chainsDental clinics are usually compared on billing, but chair time and lab work decide the margin, which is why each treatment is costed from chair hours, lab charges and materials.View trade ↗Eye hospitalsEye hospitals price cataract packages by lens type yet rarely reconcile the lens stock behind them; matching every lens used to its package shows where the margin comes from.View trade ↗Dialysis centresDialysis centres are judged on sessions run, while scheme dues and idle machines decide the result; per-session cost and payer-wise ageing by centre bring both into view.View trade ↗Day-surgery centresTheatre time is a day-surgery centre's only product, yet it is rarely costed by the minute; procedure costing from theatre time, kits and surgeon fees fixes that first.View trade ↗Multi-clinic groupsNew clinics often open before anyone knows how long the last one took to break even; reporting each clinic's ramp-up and contribution after central cost answers that.View trade ↗

The economics

Why the numbers are harder here

Healthcare providers carry an unusual disconnect between service and settlement. Cash patients pay at discharge; insurance and third-party administrator cases are billed, queried, partly disallowed and settled months later. A single reported revenue figure covering both conceals a working-capital position that can be very different from what it looks like.

Underneath that sits a cost base split across departments that share almost everything — theatre time, nursing, equipment, consumables — which makes department-level profitability a question of allocation discipline rather than arithmetic.

The problem

Where visibility breaks down

  • Third-party administrator receivables are tracked as one balance rather than aged by case.
  • Disallowances are absorbed at settlement, so nobody knows which cases or payers cause them.
  • Doctor revenue-share payouts are computed from a working file that does not reconcile to billing.
  • Pharmacy and consumables stock is counted for operations and not agreed to the books.
  • Department profitability is not computed, so cross-subsidy is invisible.

Where we concentrate

How we focus the engagement

Revenue and collection

  • Payer mix reported explicitly: cash, insurance and third-party administrator.
  • Case-level receivable ageing, not a single payer balance.
  • Disallowances analysed by payer and reason, so the pattern is addressable.
  • Billing reconciled to the clinical record, so nothing delivered goes unbilled.
  • Credit and discount authority defined and applied consistently.

Cost and department control

  • Department-wise contribution, with shared costs allocated on a stated basis.
  • Doctor payouts reconciled to billing before release.
  • Pharmacy and consumables inventory agreed to the books on a fixed cycle.
  • Equipment capital expenditure evaluated against actual utilisation.
  • Payroll and roster cost measured against activity.

Reporting

Reports worth receiving

  • Payer mix and case-level receivable ageing.
  • Disallowance analysis by payer and reason.
  • Department-wise contribution.
  • Doctor payout reconciliation.
  • Pharmacy and consumables stock position, with expiry exposure.

Common questions

Questions we hear in this sector

Do you advise on clinical or medical matters?

No. Our work is the finance function — billing reconciliation, receivables, payouts, inventory, costing and controls. Clinical, regulatory and licensing matters sit with the appropriate professionals and authorities.

Can you work with our hospital information system?

Yes. The usual gap is between the hospital system and the accounting system rather than inside either, and that handoff is generally where the reconciliation work lies.

How do you handle doctor revenue-share arrangements?

By reconciling the payout computation back to billing before it is released, and documenting the basis of each arrangement so the calculation can be checked rather than trusted.

Tell us how your business actually runs.

Discuss your requirements