Assignment: Accounting Essay

Using the Internet, Strayer databases, or the Securities and Exchange Commission's Website, perform a search on several U.S. health care publicly-traded companies and choose a health care organization that has been accused of committing health care fraud.

Write a five to six page paper in which you:

1. Evaluate the level of SOX regulations that applies to for-profit and not-for-profit health care organizations, indicating whether or not mandating SOX requirements for non-profits might reduce fraud and increase corporate governance. Provide support for your rationale.

2. Determine whether SOX has been effective in regulating ethical behavior of for-profit health care organizations. Defend your position.

3. Determine whether deficiencies existed in the IT environment, and suggest ways to improve audit trails, data integrity, and policies and procedures in order to reduce the risk of fraudulent activity.

4. Review the audit report issued by the external auditing firm from the company's Website for the year it was accused of fraud. Then, determine whether the external auditors were negligent in preparing the audit report for the company. Formulate an opinion regarding which Internal Control was deficient or what GAAP was violated. Defend your position.

5. Determine what provision(s) of SOX was / were violated in the health care fraud case in question. Indicate whether or not SOX adequately provides sanctions to deter the behavior or if changes are needed to the regulations to remedy the issue(s) and thus ensure compliance.

6. Based on the fraudulent activity that occurred, recommend two improvements to the internal control environment to reduce those occurrences. Provide detailed recommendations.

7. Use at least four quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.