Auditing and earnings management in Brazilian HMOs

Abstract

This paper examines whether external auditing minimizes the propensity for manipulation of accounting information (MAI) by health maintenance organizations (HMOs), with respect to financial information disclosed to the Brazilian Health Care Agency (ANS). The results of univariate and multivariate analyses and robustness tests indicated no statistically significant differences in the propensity to MAI between audited and unaudited financial reports in the analyzed information. The empirical regularities shown in this study provide useful insights to foreign regulators and international auditors. Our study sheds light on the effectiveness of the recent reporting and auditing regulations in Brazil, suggesting that - in regard to the HMO industry - auditing has not begun to play a more effective role yet.