Briefing / National cost collection 2019 – views and recommendations of HFMA and Institute members

The HFMA Healthcare Costing for Value Institute has written three briefings about the National cost collection. Two briefings cover member concerns about the acute and mental health PLICS collections in 2019. The third briefing considers what changes are required to the costing standards to ensure that a proportionate approach is taken to costing, delivering high quality comparable cost data for national and local use.

The HFMA and its Institute have been strong advocates for robust patient-level cost data for a number of years. Costing has a major role to play in supporting the delivery of sustainable services across the NHS. It should underpin decision-making, ensuring local decisions are informed by a clear understanding of current costs and the likely costs of new ways of working. Good cost and activity data at the patient level can help health economies to understand variations in care between different patients, helping to optimise service delivery.

The Institute briefing What finance data is required to drive value at a population level? emphasises the need for robust cost data to understand how resources are currently distributed across healthcare systems.

The Institute programme supports the NHS to improve costing, turn data into powerful patient-level information, champion multi-disciplinary engagement and ultimately drive value.

For more information on becoming a member of the Institute, please contact Richard Sawyer [email protected]