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Assignment questions
FinanceCase studyHealthcare finance

Healthcare financial management case analysis

Case selection is the first decision and it constrains everything after it. A case chosen because the story is interesting, rather than because the financial data supports analysis, produces a paper with nothing to calculate.

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 15, 2026

01

Choose the case for its numbers, not its story

Read the project description carefully and notice that it tells you how to choose: pick a case that interests you based on the overall description and the noted financial challenge or issue. Those last words matter more than the first. A case selected because the narrative is compelling but whose financial detail is thin leaves you with a paper that describes a problem and cannot analyse it, and there is no recovering from that once the writing has started. Before committing, check that the case gives you enough to work with — revenue and expense detail, a balance sheet position, a payer mix, volumes, or at minimum enough to construct a defensible pro forma. The project explicitly allows you to create financial statements as well as review them, which is permission to build what the case does not supply, provided your assumptions are stated openly rather than buried in a spreadsheet.

The analysis is where most papers underperform, because calculating ratios is easy and interpreting them is not. A current ratio, an operating margin or days in accounts receivable means nothing in isolation — it means something against a benchmark, a prior period, or a peer group, and saying which comparison you are using is part of the analysis. Work from the identified financial challenge backward: if the issue is cash flow, the relevant measures are days cash on hand, days in receivables and the payment cycle, not profitability. Then make the recommendation specific and costed. A recommendation to improve revenue cycle management is not a recommendation; a proposal to reduce days in receivables by a stated number of days through named changes, with the cash effect calculated and the implementation risk acknowledged, is one. Critical analysis in this project means the numbers have to carry the argument.

Likely learning objectives

Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.

  • 01
    Select a case whose financial detail can support quantitative analysis.
  • 02
    Interpret financial ratios against a benchmark rather than in isolation.
  • 03
    Produce a costed recommendation traceable to the identified financial issue.
Assignment instructionsQuoted verbatim

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

This project provides an opportunity to apply financial management concepts to a case study for a healthcare organization. The project helps examine the fundamentals of healthcare finances, assets, budgets, cost and financial analysis. You will create and/or review financial statements and reports, then provide a recommendation based on issues identified in the case. You will have an opportunity to critically analyze a financial case and provide recommendations. The following link provide several cases to choose from. Choose a case that interests you, based on the overall description and noted financial challenge or issue. http://www.warbirdconsulting.com/category/healthcare-case-studies The first part of your project will require you to choose a financial management case. Review the provided cases related to healthcare and financial management, and choose a specific case. The case you choose you will use throughout the course to complete your project assignments. Submit a minimum 2-page report that: Identifies the topic and case you have chosen. Describes the financial issues outlined in your case. Describe perspectives of the financial challenges. Briefly discusses its relevance specifically to financial management in a healthcare organization. You will need to use a minimum of (3) scholarly/academic sources for your research. You will need to incorporate the sources into the content and use a minimum of (1) in-text citation per source. Examples of scholarly sources include academic journals, peer-reviewed articles, and case studies. The references should specifically address related financial challenges outlined in your case and/or offer additional perspectives. Academic scholarly journals can be access through the Rasmussen Online Library. You can explore Article by Subject (Health Care or Business), to start your search. Include an APA formatted reference page to document your sources. This document will serve as your Introduction section of your projec You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
02

Turn the brief into deliverables

  1. 01
    A selected case with the financial challenge identified.
  2. 02
    Financial statements reviewed or constructed with stated assumptions.
  3. 03
    A ratio analysis interpreted against comparators.
  4. 04
    A specific, costed recommendation with APA citations.
03

From statements to a defended recommendation

01

Select and justify the case

Name the case, its financial challenge, and why its data supports analysis.

02

Establish the financial picture

Present the statements reviewed or constructed, stating any assumptions made.

03

Analyse against comparators

Calculate the measures relevant to the identified issue and interpret each against a benchmark.

04

Diagnose the cause

Explain what the numbers indicate about the underlying operational problem.

05

Recommend, cost and qualify

Propose a specific change with its financial effect and the risk of implementing it.

04

Benchmarks that make a ratio mean something

Recommended databases

  • The Warbird healthcare case library linked in the brief
  • Healthcare Financial Management Association
  • CMS cost report data
  • Business Source Complete
  • Your course text

Search sequence

  1. 1.
    Read several case descriptions before choosing, checking each for usable financial detail.
  2. 2.
    Find industry benchmarks for your chosen measures before calculating anything, since the comparison is the analysis.
  3. 3.
    Use HFMA material for the standard definitions, as ratio formulas vary between sources.
  4. 4.
    Document every assumption as you make it; a reviewer will ask where a constructed figure came from.
05

Reference shortlist

These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.

Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.

  1. 01

    Internet-Only Manuals (IOMs)

    Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · 2025

    The payment rules that determine the timing and amount of revenue, which is what most healthcare liquidity problems trace back to.

  2. 02

    Hypothesis Testing, P Values, Confidence Intervals, and Significance

    StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023

    Reference for stating uncertainty around a projected figure rather than presenting a pro forma as a fact.

  3. 03

    About CAHPS

    Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality · 2024

    Context on quality measures now tied to payment, which belongs in any recommendation affecting revenue.

  4. 04

    Wealth Inequality

    Pew Research Center · 2024

    Data on household financial capacity, relevant where the case's issue involves patient responsibility balances.

06

Review before submission

Common mistakes

  • Choosing a case for its narrative when its financial data cannot support analysis.
  • Calculating ratios without any benchmark or prior period to compare against.
  • Analysing profitability when the identified issue is liquidity.
  • Recommending a general improvement rather than a costed, specific change.

Submission checklist

  • Does the case supply enough financial detail, or have you stated your assumptions?
  • Is every ratio interpreted against something?
  • Do your measures match the financial challenge you identified?
  • Is the recommendation specific enough to be priced and implemented?

Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.

Written by

Aaron Bishop

MA, Education

assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines

Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.

Reviewed by

Dr. Nathan Cole

PhD, Rhetoric & Composition

Argumentation and thesis development

Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.

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