Cost Accounting and RVU Development Services

A critical piece of solving the financial challenges in hospitals is to answer the question "How much does it cost us to provide our services?" Deeply discounted contracts, APCs, DRGs, and capitated payment rates mean that any control over the financial health of a hospital relies heavily on the containment of costs. In order to contain costs, one must know how to identify and quantify costs.

IDEA Consulting Group provides packages of services to help you implement a costing methodology to meet your needs and philosophy. The following methods can be mixed and matched to customize the approach most suitable to your needs:

Fully Absorbed Costing

Standard Costing

Activity-based Costing

For any method or combination of methods, we will tailor an implementation which will include assistance in evaluating the implications and tradeoffs for key decision points, as well as our recommendation, for determining how best to proceed:

• '80/20 Rule' vs. Cost Studies
  
• Level of precision of RVU data (e.g. minutes, weights, costs, etc.)
  
• Fixed vs. Variable determinations
  
• Use of RCCs where appropriate
  
• Use of published industry standard RVU data if desired
  
• Automated Updating of Cost Weights from Ancillary Systems (e.g. Pharmacy,
  Materials Management)
  
• Development of overhead statistics
  
• What Trendstar products should you use? (HSL, MCA, CCA, Cost Manager?)