Running head SUTTER HEALTH 1 The California Sutter Health Approach Name ACC281 The California Sutter Health Approach The purpose of this paper is to outline the steps that California s Sutter Health health care organization has taken to assure that their patients and families can afford health care Due SUTTER HEALTH 2 to the increase in costs and the inability to collect payments there have been many financial rollercoaster rides with the budgeting and patient collections This has caused a struggle on the organization to meet operational margins and profits There are a number of reasons for this new increase in patient debts The more common are poor accounting practices lack of patient information and correct patient demographics Patients are not able to be reached As a result they are working on and redesigning all of their management and account processes while striving to keep the healthcare affordable for their patients and the families Sutter Health is a not for profit health system that provides health care to over 100 Northern California cities and towns Souza McCarty 2007 Sutter Health is composed of hospitals physician organizations and other health care service providers that share resources and expertise to advance health care quality They have grown from a small independent health care facility in Sacramento to one of the largest health care providers today In 2006 Sutter Health one of Northern California s largest providers committed to giving its patient financial services PFS staff the necessary tools to improve patient collections After reading the details of the financial approach it showed that the staff began working towards the registration staff with its aim at transferring back end functions to the front end so they would make the norm The hospitals accounting system did not allow managers to isolate and analyze select data or generate reports on demand to the level of detail required Instead the region relied on a specially trained programmer to develop these reports often leading to costly delays in identifying and correcting problems SUTTER HEALTH 3 Even though there are uninsured individuals more than 80 percent of uninsured people come from working families Souza 2007 Many of these people have the means to pay for hospital services but are not requested to pay out the funds This paper will discuss how one health care organization California s Sutter Health has taken steps to correct this issue Sutter Health primary purpose is to offer discount or charity discount to the uninsured and make the cost of health care more affordable This paper will also analyze the accounting practices put into place by Sutter Health and the financial achievement the facility has created References SUTTER HEALTH 4 Facilities Sutter Health plans 6 6 billion investment in northern California healthcare services 2006 Health Medicine Week 657 657 Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 207104982 accountid 32521 Facilities Sutter Health plans 6 6 billion investment in northern California healthcare services 2006 Aging Elder Health Week 51 51 Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 211530791 accountid 32521 Facilities Sutter Health plans 6 6 billion investment in northern California healthcare services 2006 Managed Care Weekly Digest 35 35 Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 210645164 accountid 32521 Rauber C 1995 Merger talks initiated between CHS and Sutter San Francisco Business Times 9 35 1 1 Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 227664921 accountid 32521 CPMC St Luke s commit to sustain health care services in the San Francisco south of market area 2005 Sep 26 Business Wire Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 445358741 accountid 32521 Larkin H 2004 From the Storeroom to the Boardroom Hospitals Health Networks 78 10 64 6 68 Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 215310888 accountid 32521 Johnson V R Hummel J Kinninger T Lewis R F 2004 Immediate steps toward patient safety Healthcare Financial Management 58 2 56 61 Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 196369604 accountid 32521 SUTTER HEALTH 5 Dorsey Griffith Scripps McClatchy W S 1996 Dec 26 Health care systems join to make new approach Daily News Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 281572076 Riley J F Heath S R 1992 Quality improvement means better productivity Healthcare Executive 7 3 19 21 Retrieved from http search proquest com docview 200313232 accountid 32521 accountid 32521