No abstract

We examine the association of for-profit (FP) and nonprofit (NP) economic incentives in hospice care providers with financial and nonfinancial metrics of management performance. Controlling for quality of patient care and differences in cost-efficiency, we find that FP providers (1) selectively admit patients with longer life-prognoses and billable days and hence lower average costs per day, (2) employ a lower average cost/skill mix of workers, and (3) have higher CEO compensation and profit. The NP providers admit more patients with the less profitable life-prognoses attributes, have lower CEO compensation, and reinvest their net earnings under the non-distribution constraint. While the profit incentive may be needed to attract providers into this rapidly growing and underserved market, the NP providers return a lower cost per patient served from the taxpayer's perspective.

In order to fully appreciate the potential impact accounting information systems have on the accounting profession, an understanding of what accounting encompasses is necessary.  Over the years, accounting has evolved from what many would call a “checks and balance” system to a much more complex system involving complicated activities such as calculating taxes and garnishments, auditing financial statements and processing payroll to name a few.  It would be reasonable to think that advanced technology such as accounting information systems would only enhance the production of these activities.  However, like with any “game changers,” there are always potential threats involved.  The objective of this paper is to determine if accounting information systems have become so helpful, they in fact have begun to hinder business and decrease productivity.  This paper demonstrates that although a majority population of those surveyed felt accounting information systems have added credibility to the accounting profession, there is still a large population that remain neutral on the subject leaving doubt as to the advantages and purpose of accounting information systems.

We examine earnings management in non-publicly listed companies, with a focus on for-profit (FP) hospice organizations, and extend the accounting earnings management literature to the hospice industry. FP hospice organizations file Medicare cost reports that include complete financial statements not otherwise publicly available. Managers of FP hospice organizations have incentives to manage earnings to increase performancebased bonuses, meet or beat bond covenant requirements, or avoid public scrutiny. We find total accruals are significantly positively associated with profitability, debt, and size factors. However, discretionary accruals are significantly negatively associated with debt and size, but not profitability. Thus, monitoring and political cost factors appear to effectively mitigate earnings management in this industry sector.

This paper presents a case study of the accounting practices of a company that is privately held. The company "follows" Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) but has some questionable transactions. The paper then follows up with a discussion of baby-GAAP and possible consequences of two different GAAP options.