Budgeting UMGC Health Care

Budgeting

From the onset, it would be prudent to note that as Maynard (2017) points out, “In the healthcare industry, an operating budget is the forecasted expenditures and revenues for the coming year” (211). UMGC Health Care operates in the healthcare realm. The relevance of its operating budget cannot therefore be overstated when it comes to planning operations. This is more so the case given that it brings together all the relevant expenses as well as revenues for a given period of time, i.e. a year as is the case in the present scenario. It is important to note that in line with standard practice, UMGC Health Care’s operating budget was formulated prior to the reporting period. For this reason, it could be viewed as the objective that this particular organization is interested in achieving. The two crucial components that were taken into consideration were revenues and expenses. A total of 4 revenue components were included. These were; fee-for-service, private pay, fundraiser, and grants. On the other hand, following the determination of revenues, expenses were determined. The said expenses were salaries, benefits, rent, insurance, overhead, as well as supplied and depreciation.

There are various formats that could be used in the grouping of revenues and expenses in the financial statements for control as well as planning purposes. In basic terms, expenses could be grouped in terms of variable expenses, fixed expenses, non-operating expenses, and non-cash expenses. To give a few examples, in the case of UMGC Health Care, fixed expenses were inclusive of salaries, insurance, etc. Non-cash expenses, on the other hand, were inclusive of depreciation.