Concept: Fiscal Year

Introduction

For most businesses, health care institutions included, the fiscal year is defined as starting at April 1 and ending the following year at March 31. For example the 1996/97 fiscal year would be April 1, 1996 to March 31, 1997.

MCHP must keep the fiscal year in mind when examining data records and organizing data sets. This is because our data is a subset of the Manitoba Health database and they use the April 1 to March 31 fiscal year. This means that a data record year is the fiscal year, not the expected January 1 to December 31.

Users of hospital data should realize that it is separation based and that at the end of the fiscal year there may be some undercounting for individuals that are still in hospital.

See also Claims - incomplete hospital claims at the end of the fiscal year.