Healthcare Financial Statements and Ethical Standards Case Study Analysis
Review the following case:
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) HealthSouth Corp. a Birmingham Alabama health-services company overstated its profits by at least $1.4 billion between the years 1999 and 2003 to meet or exceed Wall Street estimates. The allegations came just seven months after an earnings restatement and insider-trading charges triggered the investigation. Although this case happened years ago the fallout from the scandal was still in the news in 2012 demonstrating the long-term damage a healthcare organization can suffer as a result of fraud.
There is a tremendous amount of publicly available information about the fraud committed by HealthSouth Corp. The fraud included many of the typical earnings-manipulation tricks such as capitalizing expenses understating reserves for receivables and extending the usefulness of equipment. There was none of the highly technical fraud such as that seen in Enron.
Access the following link to learn more about this case:
Analyze each element of this case. Consider the following aspects in your analysis:
Give reasons to support your statements.
