Book excerpt: Health Care Finance and the Mechanics of Insurance and Reimbursement stands apart from other texts on health care finance or health insurance, in that it combines financial principles unique to the health care setting with the methods and process for reimbursement (including coding, reimbursement strategies, compliance, financial reporting, case mix index, and external auditing). It explains the revenue cycle in detail, correlating it with regular management functions; and covers reimbursement from the initial point of care through claim submission and reconciliation. Thoroughly updated for its second edition, this text reflects changes to the Affordable Care Act, Managed Care Organizations, new coding initiatives, new components of the revenue cycle (from reimbursement to compliance), updates to regulations surrounding health care fraud and abuse, changes to the Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) program, and more.