Week 5: Break-even Analysis
Assignment Guidelines with Scoring Rubric
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to:
To provide learners with the opportunity to develop break-even-analysis skills.
Due Date:
Total Points Possible: 100
Requirements:
Answer the questions and complete the calculations required for the assignment.
Submit your answers on a Word document, with the heading of Week 5 Assignment. For the questions requiring a written response, adhere to proper grammar and syntax, and provide references. For the questions requiring calculations, show all your work and follow the format that has been provided for the calculations in the lesson for Week 5.
- When performing calculations, standard rounding rules apply. If the number to the right of the decimal is less than 5, round down to the nearest whole number, e.g., 33.4 = 33 If the number to the right of the decimal is 5 or greater, round up to the nearest whole number, e.g. 33.5 =34.
- Read the question carefully. Pay close attention to the units be asked and keep them consistent. For example, hours vs FTEs; days vs months vs years.
- Provide ALL formulas with references. Designate which formula associates with which source. It is not sufficient to simply list the source at the beginning of the section. Write out the formula used BEFORE filling in the numbers. Formulas used should be taken from one of the required resources for this course.
Example: Total Contribution Margin (CM) = (CM) category 1 + CM cat 2 + CM 3
Leger, J.M. & Dunham-Taylor, J. (2018). Financial management for nurse managers: Merging the heart with the dollar, 4th Ed. Burlington, MA: Jones-Bartlett.
Preparing the paper
Break-Even Analysis Case Study
You and several of your colleague business partners have decided to establish an outpatient fertility clinic in your service area. All of you are very familiar with this patient population base, have completed an extensive market analysis that demonstrated a great need for the service, and are comfortable with setting up a business and the costs associated with this special group of patients.
As part of the business plan, you and your partners will need to convince stakeholders that this new service endeavor will be viable. They will want to know how many patients visits annually will need to occur and how long it will take for the service to be at least cost neutral or profitable. To provide them with this information you will perform a break-even analysis. Use the following data, conduct the analysis accounting for the contribution margin of each patient acuity category.
- Fixed Costs: $9,788,000 (start-costs, specialty physicians, anesthesiologists, APNs, staff nurses and other staff salaries, specialty equipment, other miscellaneous)
- Variable costs: $500/patient visit (specialty equipment, oxygen supplies, other miscellaneous)
- Clinic days: Monday-Saturday- 312 days/year
- Projected patient visits per year: 7488
- Patient charges by patient acuity category:
- Simple (15%)————$2000/visit
- Moderate (60%)——–$6500/visit
- Complex (25%)———$10,000/visit
| Break-even Analysis Data Table | ||||||||
| Acuity Category | Percentage % | Charge per Visit | Visits per Year | Charges per Year | Visits per Day | Charges per Day | Contribution Margin | |
| Simple | 15% | $2000 | ||||||
| Moderate | 60% | $6500 | ||||||
| Complex | 25% | $10,000 | ||||||
| Expected Total Daily Charges | ||||||||
| Expected Total Daily Revenue | ||||||||
| Break Even point in days | ||||||||
| Break Even point in visits | ||||||||
- Describe your approach to this case study. In addition to the numbers given, what do you need to know before you can calculate the break-even analysis?
- Perform the calculations needed for the break-even analysis. Show your work, formulas used, and reference the formula. When calculating the patient visits per day, round to the nearest whole. After you’ve completed the calculations, record your results in the appropriate place in the table.
- How many patient visits are expected per day?
- What is the contribution margin of each category of patient?
- Based on the data and your calculations, what is the expected daily revenue?
- How long (in days, months, or years) will it be before the return on investment begins?
- How many patient visits will be required to reach the break-even point?
- Discuss your analysis. Is the project viable and profitable service? Does the analysis support moving forward with the business? Cite specific data from you analysis to support your interpretation.
