News / Case study support for costing standards

The HFMA published  its Acute health clinical costing standards 2015/16, alongside mental health standards, in February. The standards are published as part of Monitor’s Approved costing guidance, which also includes guidance for the mandatory reference costs collection and the voluntary patient cost collection.

The association introduced new
sub-chapters in 2014/15, as part of standard 3 covering the allocation of costs. This provided more detailed guidance on allocation of ward, theatre and medical staffing costs.

These standards have been further developed for 2015/16 and the document has been supplemented with a separate publication of case studies that explore how different trusts have enhanced allocation methods in these areas.

The case studies do not just describe approaches rated as gold standard in the materiality and quality score (MAQS) system, which helps organisations to assess their own costing approach.

Instead, they are intended to show organisations how they could improve allocation approaches, whatever their starting point.

Some of the 11 case studies describe the use of patient acuity data to refine nurse cost allocation, using real-time acuity data and statistical models (standard 3a).

They also cover allocation of prosthetic costs and other non-pay items to patients in theatres and
moving beyond overly simplistic
time-in-theatre based allocation methods (standard 3b). And for medical staff (standard 3c), there is a look at the more accurate allocation of junior doctor costs and moving beyond the simple use of job plans.

The 2015/16 standards also include a new section – standard 3d – which covers the allocation of emergency department costs.

  See www.hfma.org.uk/costing