Report on Budget Policy and Financial Analysis: AHA Organization

This report provides an analysis of the American Heart Association's (AHA) budget policy. It begins with an introduction to the AHA and its mission to reduce deaths from cardiovascular diseases and strokes. The discussion section examines the importance of budgeting in motivating employees and achieving organizational goals, including revenue forecasting and budget review procedures. The report outlines the AHA's five pillars of operation and its advocacy efforts. It also discusses the conflict-of-interest disclosure policies. The report reviews the budget policies, including performance measurement and the use of a master budget. Recommendations for improving the budget are provided, such as incorporating more citizen input and other performance measures. The report concludes with a summary of the budget process and policies of the AHA, emphasizing its commitment to addressing issues in heart disease and stroke research. References to supporting documents are also provided.

Running head: BUDGET POLICY
BUDGET POLICY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Budget Policies................................................................................................................................4
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
Reference.........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The American Heart Association (AHA) is the oldest and the most significant health
organisation directed towards diminishing the death and disability from cardiovascular diseases
and stroke. It is a non-profit organisation in the United States and was formed in New York City
in 1924 as an association for Prevention and Relief of Heart Diseases (American Heart
Association, 2020). The AHA has been focused on achieving health care reform that will serve
as the best interest for the patient.
Discussion
A budget is an essential tool for motivating employees and attaining better performance
since it provides specific standards and goals which an organisation wants to achieve (Chohan,
2017). It describes the money that an organisation plans to raise and spend for some specific
purpose during a given time period. The American Heart Association deals with cardiovascular
disease and stroke and has been trying to improve significantly in preventing, diagnosing and
treating these problems. Thus, the implementation of such improvement will impact the budget
process of the organisation (Heart, 2020).
The revenue forecast is not 100 per cent accurate. However, the forecasting of revenue
helps to budget expenses early (Saruta & Puig-Junoy, 2016). The officers of the AHA prepare
the revenue forecast, and the outlook or the preparation of the budget is done during the initial
phase of the year. The budget helps to know the target required to be achieved by AHA at
regular intervals. The reviewing procedure of the budget is done at regular intervals to find out
the variation of actual performance with that of the standard.

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The work of the organisation is guided by five pillars which are changing system,
changing policy, leading breakthroughs in science and technology, transforming communities
and transforming health care. The organisation has provided vital tools and information that
helps to make the life of the people healthier and stronger. It also advocates that protects and
improves the health by educating lawmakers, policymakers and public. While integrating such
implement the all the cost related to formulate such implementation is adjusted with the expenses
and shown in the budget. The function of the budget is done at the headquarter of the
organisation which is at Dallas. The non-profit organisation has 147 local offices with more than
40 million volunteers and supporters and employs more than 3400 employees.
The organisation has been influencing public policy through advocacy in achieving its
health impact goals which comprise all the Americans to lead healthier lives. The advocacy work
involves and engages the national office of the association, researcher, advocates, staff and the
general public.
The American Heart Association steps up with every possible effort to reduce any kind
potential or actual conflicts that can ascend as a consequence of any external conflicts or a
professional or personal or due to business interest of the members of the writing panel. To
protect both AHA and AHA representative, the members are obligatory to complete and submit a
disclosure questionnaire reflecting all such relationship that might be apparent as a potential or
conflict of interest (Goldstein et al., 2011).
Citizen participation in the assessment stage provides a constructive suggestion and also
provides recommendation for the next budget cycle. Since budgeting is a contiuous and
repetitive process seeking citizenship input in the initial stage will affect the decision on resource
allocation.

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Budget Policies
The performance measurement related to recent revenues and expenses generated by the
organisation is used in the process of budgeting to gain information and to make appropriate
choices and decision.
The organisation follows a master budget which includes all the lower-level budgets
produced by several functional areas and also contains cash forecast and financial statement.
The revenues and expenses are estimated based on the past performance of the
organisation considering the trend that occurs every year with respect to growth and decay in the
financial statement. The ultimate goal of the analysis is to reduce death caused by cardiovascular
health and stokes. The organisation has made overall progress of 3.8 per cent by reducing the
total CVD by 15.1 per cent and total stroke by 13.6 per cent (Benjamin et al., 2017)
The guidelines for making the budget is utilising 85 per cent of the revenue as an expense
for the betterment of the public, and after paying tax, the remaining income is set aside for
consumption in the next year.
Recommendation
The budget of the American Heart Association can be improved by continuously keeping
a track on the actual performance and highlighting potential impacts that can be a risk to the
financial health of the organisation. Allowing for more citizenship input will help the
organisation to facilitate better research on the mysteries of heart and brain, and it will help in
research expansion to find the cure of mysteries. The organisation is already making an
investment of $198 million in research. Incorporating the other performance measures quality of

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health plans, disparities in performance and patient experience of care will indicate a proper and
more accurate budget.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the report shows the budget process and policies of the non-profit
organisation of the US. The science-based non-profit organisation pursues a wide-ranging
agenda to address various issues in the areas of heart diseases and stroke research. Discussion on
the budget guidelines and recommendation to improve the budget of the American Heart
Association also been elaborated in the report.

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Reference
American Heart Association. (2020). Retrieved 18 February 2020, from https://www.heart.org/en
Benjamin, E. J., Blaha, M. J., Chiuve, S. E., Cushman, M., Das, S. R., Deo, R., ... & Jiménez, M.
C. (2017). Heart disease and stroke statistics-2017 update: a report from the American
Heart Association. Circulation, 135(10), e146-e603.
Chohan, U. W. (2017). Budget offices. Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public
Policy, and Governance.
Goldstein, L., Whitsel, L., Meltzer, N., Schoeberl, M., Birnbaum, J., & Nelson, S. et al. (2011).
American Heart Association and Nonprofit Advocacy: Past, Present, and Future.
Circulation, 123(7), 816-832. doi: 10.1161/cir.0b013e31820a5528
Heart (2020). Retrieved 18 February 2020, from
https://www.heart.org/-/media/files/about-us/annual-report/american-heart-association-
annual-report-for-2018-2019.pdf
Saruta, Y., & Puig-Junoy, J. (2016). Cost and budget impact analysis of an accurate
intraoperative sentinel lymph node diagnosis for breast cancer metastasis. Applied health
economics and health policy, 14(3), 323-3.