Cost Accounting

Cost Accounting Introduction · Cost accounting measures, records, analyzes and reports costs of products/services to help management plan, control and make decisions. · In hospitals it identifies costs of patient care activities (inpatient days, surgeries, lab tests), support services, and overheads. Purpose (hospital): Determine cost per bed-day , per surgery, per lab test. Control costs (identify waste, improve efficiency). Set prices/fee schedules and negotiate with insurers/GOI schemes. Budgeting, performance measurement and investment decisions. Example: Calculating cost per inpatient day to set bed charges or to compare with peer hospitals. Exam tip: Start with definition → objectives (control, pricing, decision-making) → hospital examples. Procedure of Cost Accounting (step-by-step) Define objective (e.g., compute unit cost of inpatient day). ...