New Delhi, Apr 16 () Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the cost accountants' apex body has pitched for a coding system for diseases that will help in having a better picture on costs for various treatments and procedures.
Members of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, a body that comes under the corporate affairs ministry, are responsible for carrying cost audit, among other activities.
The institute has also written to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) voluntarily offering cost audit services with respect to testing for coronavirus infections.
There should be a coding system in order to have a clearer picture on cost of treatment for various diseases. Such a system would also be help in ensuring affordable costs for various treatments, the institute's President Balwinder Singh told .
The institute already has a detailed guidance note on cost management in healthcare sector.
According to Singh, the principles for various kinds of costing are provided in the guidance note and those principles can be applied in deciding treatment costs for different diseases.
"The institute plans to write to the government proposing a coding system (for diseases)," he said.
A cost framework is in place for certain medical devices, including stents. The institute worked with the government in deciding on the cost of stents.
As per the institute, effective procedure costing and cost management can play a large role in changing the dynamics of the healthcare industry. Accurate costing of procedures and services would lead to competitive pricing and that would make quality healthcare services more affordable.
Some of the essential tools for effective cost analysis include time-based and activity-based costing.
Those would help in capturing the cost of each and every effort and process as well as provide the impact of under-utilised resources.
Variance analysis would also help in optimum utilisation of resources and in enabling control over the cost of the procedures, it added.
In a letter to ICMR on April 13, the institute said it was ready to offer on a voluntary basis cost audit service with regard to costing of the coronavirus tests to be carried out by the government or private pathological laboratories.
"We understand that the recommendation of ICMR to put a cap of Rs 4,500 for one of the coronavirus test protocols has been challenged in the Supreme Court of India and the apex court has ordered to make all coronavirus tests free of cost.
"However, there has been resentment in the healthcare firms involved with such tests and they have termed the ruling as impractical to implement due to costing issues," the letter had said.
On April 13, the Supreme Court modified its April 8 order which asked private labs to conduct free Covid-19 tests and said the benefit would be available only to economically weaker sections who are covered under a government scheme such as the Ayushman Bharat.
The membership of the institute is around 70,000 members. RAM ABMABM
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