Basics of finance and accounting.

It is estimated that by 2020, 41% of the income of the average middleclass family will go toward funding householdmedical costs. If this is left unaddressed, inadequate family income will remain for living essentials such as housing, education, and proper nutrition. As such, society has a moral responsibility to lower the cost of care while preserving quality. The individuals most capable of driving this change will be physicians committed to excellence in care and possessing an understanding of the business of medicine. Accounting and finance enable the monitoring and management of the business of medicine. Accounting is the recording of financial transactions in a manner that enables understanding, analysis, and reporting. Finance is the management of cash (eg, money we have, money owed to us, and money we owe) and resources (eg, equipment and buildings). In medicine, management and recording of financial transactions are particularly important because the vast majority of our work is done on a credit basis, with an agreement that the patient’s insurer, or the patient, will pay in the future [1]. Until converted to cash, this credit cannot be used to pay salaries, and it cannot be used to meet the debt requirements of an equipmentintensive business such as radiology. If one does not track andmanage the revenue cycle properly, in short order there will be no revenue.