The HFMA firmly believes that good costing information is key to day-to-day management and will be vital during the coming years as the NHS seeks to drive both the quality and cost-effectiveness of services. In particular, the service needs to understand costs at the patient level as it looks to understand variation, enhance quality and outcomes, and eliminate waste. Engaging clinicians – as the key resource decision makers and those best equipped to design higher quality pathways – is central to this process. But the foundation for this engagement is cost data that is meaningful, accurate and comparable. Beyond the importance of robust cost information locally, costing has a huge role to play in informing the setting of tariffs that provide fair compensation for providers, while incentivising quality improvements.
HFMA's work on costing is now supported by three separate groups.
Acute Costing Practitioners Group
The acute costing group provides a forum for discussion on NHS costing practice and a focus for the association’s work on costing. The group has a specific purpose of maintaining/developing the NHS clinical costing standards for acute organisations.
The aims of the group include providing a source of expertise on costing for the Association, responding to consultations from government and other relevant bodies on matters relating to costing, undertaking, commissioning or co-ordinating research into costing related issues on behalf of HFMA and championing the benefits of high quality costing and its importance in underpinning decision making.
Mental Health Costing Practitioners Group
HFMA have now also set up a mental health costing group specifically to look at the development of the clinical costing standards for mental health organisations. The mental health costing group work in parallel with the acute group to develop the standards and discuss costing issues specific to mental health organisations. Details of the mental health costing group meetings will appear in the costing group section alongside the acute costing group details.
Strategic Costing Group
The strategic costing group is made up of finance directors and senior leaders who are committed to the improvement of costing. The group will spearhead the Association’s work to champion costing and will actively engage with the key stakeholders including the Department of Health, Monitor and the NHS Commissioning Board to influence costing practice.
If you are interested in joining or finding out more about any of the costing groups, please contact committees@hfma.org.uk