Payers conduct business in a dynamic marketplace and a complex, stringent, and continually evolving regulatory environment. Adding additional complexity to their underlying business, payers are increasingly expanding operations internationally. These forces of change have direct and indirect impact on how payers manage cash and treasury activities.
Although the healthcare industry accounts for the largest share of U.S. gross national product, treasury practices of healthcare organizations often lack the appropriate framework and sophistication that characterize other business sectors. Due in part to mandated financial accounting and reporting standards, treasury activities for payers are complex. In many cases, these activities are paper-intensive, and manual processes are commonplace. The industry’s information technology is often outdated and compartmentalized &mdash unable to support vital functions, such as electronic transaction processing, effective cash and liquidity management and financial risk management. Decentralized and fragmented treasury processes weaken the internal controls of a mission-critical corporate finance department.
Payers have significant opportunities to improve their treasury processes and controls and their use of cash, reduce the costs of managing cash and banking activities, and gain a better understanding of financial risks.
The "to-do" list for CFOs and treasurers includes:
- Assess the impact of change on the financial risks generated by the business
- Establish an effective treasury framework to manage those risks at reasonable cost
- Implement new cash, liquidity, and financing structures to benefit from advances in banking products and services
- Make use of cost-effective treasury technology to benefit from enhanced connectivity and automated, integrated business processes
- Comply with a constantly evolving regulatory environment, including tax regulation, accounting standards (notably FAS 133, IAS 39 and IFRS), controls, and governance legislation (Sarbanes Oxley).
How we can help you
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ multi-disciplinary advisory teams include tax and accounting experts, former corporate treasury senior professionals, and technology specialists who have practical working experience with the treasuries of multinational corporations. We combine our extensive knowledge of leading cross-industry treasury practices with our health industry expertise to offer innovative and proven advisory services and solutions to our payer clients.
Our project delivery and change management methodologies provide a structured route from risk assessment and project planning to post-implementation review. We have an excellent track record of helping our clients realize substantial financial benefits while reducing their exposure to financial risk. We can help you:
- Assess your current treasury practices, operations, and internal controls and benchmark them against industry-accepted practices to identify opportunities for performance improvement
- Develop treasury policies and processes that enable your treasury operations to support business objectives and add value to your organization
- Optimize cash efficiency and management of liquidity and evaluate appropriate banking partners
- Review the way you manage market, liquidity, refinancing, credit, and operational risks and assist in designing appropriate hedging strategies
- Design and implement dynamic financial risk management frameworks to meet current needs while positioning your business for future growth
- Design hedge-accounting processes and implement effective accounting and reporting solutions for derivative instruments and hedging activities
- Select and implement technology solutions to streamline and integrate treasury practices
