Cost Accounting in Community Healthcare Institutions: Characteristics, Development and Appropriate Methods

Abstract

There is no consistent, standardized cost accounting method for community healthcare institutions. The cost accounting in community healthcare institutions differ from that in public hospitals in that these institutions have a wider scope of function orientation, more difficulties in counting volume of services, higher demand for calculating the cost of new services, and relatively weaker informatization foundation, so it is necessary to explore a cost accounting method that is different from that used in public hospitals, and specially applicable to community healthcare institutions. We reviewed relevant literature, then summarized the development of cost accounting in community healthcare institutions, and systematically analyzed four common methods (proportionality coefficient, operating method, equivalent method, standardized workload method) and compared the similarities, differences and applicability of them. We found that the equivalent method and the standardized workload method are more widely used in practice because both of them are simple with "time" as the main accounting parameter, and can quickly calculate the cost of new services. Moreover, the two methods provide a unified "yardstick", which can provide a basis for performance management, financial compensation and personnel supplement for community healthcare institutions. So these two methods can be used for calculating performance and cost basis for community healthcare institutions obtaining the financial security (the first class public welfare institutions), and for those using a performance management system (the second class public welfare institutions), and are more applicable to community healthcare institutions at present. Standards and norms for cost accounting and management in community healthcare institutions should be formed to improve the self-management ability of these institutions and promote the overall high-quality development of community health services.

Keywords

• costs and cost analysis|community health services|equivalent method|standardized workload method|proportionality coefficient|operating method|performance