Scenario: The medical director of the Open MRI Clinic has asked you, as its financial director, to look into differences between actual and budgeted figures. From its inception, the Open MRI Clinic has been constantly understaffed (a Closed MRI unit across town recently went out of business). In addition, third party payer reimbursement for Open MRI services increased recently. The clinic has had intermittent equipment breakdowns, and several new radiology techs have been hired in the past month. There are differences in both budgeted and actual revenues and in budgeted and actual expenses. With all this in mind, the medical director asks you to draft a memo, in which you are required to do the following.
a. Briefly summarize the three (3) general types of budget variances that could have occurred at the clinic. Conclude whether each of the three variances is either favorable or unfavorable and explain your conclusions.
b. Discuss specific factors in budget control that the clinic should consider to investigate and correct these variances.