News / HFMA takes standard role

The HFMA has agreed with the Department of Health to take over the maintenance and development of the clinical costing standards, which aim to support a consistent approach to patient level costing across the English NHS.

Standards already exist for the acute and mental health sectors. The acute standards, built on similar work in Australia and were developed in conjunction with NHS costing practitioners, were last updated in May 2009. Mental health standards were published in November. They form a costing manual for units using patient level information and costing systems (PLICS).

The clinical costing work will be led by the HFMA’s Costing Special Interest Group. Refreshed standards will be published in 2011.

The group has a broader remit than just maintaining standards; it aims to champion improvements in costing and the use of costing information to improve decision-making. But the development of patient level costing and implementation of PLICS will be a key focus.

In 2008, 60 organisations had implemented a PLICS system. The Department is finalising a survey, alongside this year’s reference costs collection, that will give an updated picture. But it told Healthcare Finance there had been good progress: ‘Early indications show take-up of PLICS has increased over the past two years.’

Full results of the survey, which also looks at organisations’ choice of systems and use of patient level costs to drive reference cost returns, will be published shortly.

Tony Whitfield, chair of the HFMA costing group, said: ‘We face major challenges in delivering improved productivity, but patient level data can help engage clinicians in improving pathways and reducing costs. There are costs related to implementation and producing good-quality data, but increasingly NHS bodies appear to recognise this as a sound investment to improve efficiency.’

The Department has also announced a pilot initiative to collect programme budgeting data using tariff prices rather than reference costs as the basis for PCT expenditure on secondary care.