engleski

Comparison of cost calculation methods in Croatian and German healthcare system

Due to the growing costs and the limited number of available resources, there is a need for more rational use of the resources. Accepting the need for more cost-effective decision- making in the healthcare system, healthcare providers seek strategic tools that will enable them rational cost-management without affecting the quality of care provided to patients. Changes in the business environment over the last few decades have made traditional cost accounting methods outdated from the point of accurate estimates and cost allocations and, consequently, the assessment of the profitability of certain products and services. They are sufficient to measure costs at the level of medical and administrative departments, but they are a bad model in allocating these costs from the level of organizational units to the level of real medical care procedures that help them take care of patients. Since the need for a more reliable and transparent model of cost- effectiveness measurement in the healthcare system has been created, attention is paid to one of today's cost calculations methods, the ABC method, which provides more objective and reliable information on cost-based activity versus obsolete traditional methods. The purpose of this paper is to explore differences in implementation of the ABC method in the healthcare of the Republic of Croatia as well as in the healthcare of Germany on the example of the operative procedure - knee arthroscopy through the report on gross margin analysis. In addition to this report, the differences between the two health systems will be shown through a report which tracks the costs of direct labor, consumables, equipment and other indirect costs. Based on the comparisons and analyzes, it is possible to conclude that the cost of this operation is cheaper in the Republic of Croatia than in Germany, with the quality of the service being the same. This conclusion is in favor of the ever-present trend in medical tourism in the Republic of Croatia, which should also be seen as an incentive for the implementation of cost calculation methods in Croatian hospitals in order to provide a more rational and cost- effective use of available resources.

ABC/TDABC method, cost allocation, traditional cost allocation methods, modern cost allocation methods, healthcare system

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