Costing and Pricing in Healthcare Private Firms

This article analyzes the development of an activity-based costing （ABC） system in a private Italian healthcare firm. Findings shed light on the role of the cost accounting system in price assessment： It outlines new opportunities for the identification of the service mix offered as well as for price optimization. Because private companies provide services both within the public system--where the National Health System （NHS） provides fixed reimbursement fees--and within the private system--where prices are defined by each company. Accurate cost information is extremely important to support managers in the analysis of the service mix profitability offered in each system. For the business segment in which companies do not have flexibility in setting prices, cost information enables managers to identify services which may present profitability problems. For the business segment where price flexibility exists, cost information supports the identification of pricing errors so that charges can be better defined.     

Absorption versus direct costing: the relevance of opportunity costs in the management of congested stochastic production systems

This paper investigates the relative performance of absorption versus direct costing procedures. Traditionally, absorption costing procedures have been defended on the basis of them acting as a proxy for hard to measure opportunity costs. We question the validity of this traditional defence by explicitly considering the extent to which absorption costing-based accounting calculations actually provide good proxies. Our analysis shows that in some situations absorption costing so over estimates opportunity costs that it would be preferable to use direct costing even though this implicitly assumes opportunity costs are zero. Thus, given that we establish that one can notalwaysuse the existence of opportunity costs as a defence for the adoption of absorption costing procedures we next identifyspecificconditions for which if satisfied, we can unambiguously defend the adoption of absorption costing. We develop an ‘open acceptance condition’ which if satisfied insures that a production system directed by absorption costs out performs a system based upon direct costs.     

The Evolution of Standard Costing in the U.K. and U.S.: From Decision Making to Control

Decision making and control are two fundamental components of industrial management that are aided by accounting information. This article traces the evolution of standard costing in the U.K. and U.S. and describes how it has served these two purposes over time. At the start of the industrial revolution, standard costing, in the form of past actual costs, aided managers in make-or-buy, pricing, outsourcing and other routine and special decisions. In the late nineteenth century, as the mass production of homogeneous products became more common, predetermined, norm-based standard costs were promoted as the means to control operations and reduce waste. The use of predetermined costs was recommended by both academic and professional branches well into the twentieth century. Since the mid-1980s, norm-based standards have come under fire for not providing appropriate strategic signals in an era of global competition, continuous improvement and perpetual cost reduction.
This article compares the nature of standard costing practices in the British Industrial Revolution with those that evolved in the U.S. under scientific management. The enquiry is not limited to double-entry systems and, like Miller and Napier (1993), the domain is broadened to include other forms of cost-keeping practices. We utilize primary and secondary sources to argue that the environment and rationales for standard costs have changed fundamentally over time. It is speculated that in the future standard costing will be used far less for individual accountability or operational control, but will return to its decision-making roots in the form of long-run cost targets that benchmark the success of continuous cost-reduction efforts.     

浅谈医院开展全成本核算的重要性

全成本核算是医院经济管理中的重要手段和组成部分,是医院可持续发展的支撑力,是提高医疗资源合理配置、适应医疗市场竞争、完善激励机制的需要.本文通过分析目前医院成本核算中存在的问题,综合阐述了医院开展全成本核算的重要性.     

论我国应用作业成本法的环境制约

作业成本法是一种先进的成本计算与管理方法。在我国 ,虽然一些企业已尝试应用并取得了很好的效果 ,但由于受到技术、法律、管理及人员等环境因素的制约 ,作业成本法在我国的全面推行尚有难度。     

作业成本法在物流企业中的应用分析

物流已经成为国民经济的支柱产业之一,加强其成本管理已经成为物流管理的重中之重。文章在分析物流及物流成本管理现状的基础上,探讨作业成本法在物流管理中应用的意义和可行性,提出了在物流管理中应用作业成本法的程序,分析了我国物流企业采用作业成本法应注意的几个问题。     

Environmental adders in the real world

This paper evaluates the use of environmental ‘adders’ as a regulatory instrument. It evaluates their likely performance in meeting the policy objective of social costing given the changes in the electric utility industry's structure and in environmental policy since the efforts to estimate these costs were initiated. The prognosis is largely negative — suggesting that environmental adders are inconsistent with the increased competition already underway in the utility industry, as well as with the trend toward greater use of true market-based approaches to environmental policy that are not subject to detailed economic regulation.     

作业成本法与平衡计分卡在物流企业战略管理中的结合运用

将作业成本法与平衡计分卡引入一个新的领域--物流企业的战略管理,并根据两者的互补性,提出结合使用的建议。     

基于作业成本法的供应商选择方法

供应商的选择是供应链管理中开发供应商伙伴关系的一项重要内容。本文在现有文献的基础上对供应商选择模型进行了改进，建立一个供应商选择混合整数规划模型，在模型中考虑每个潜在供应商的生产能力约束。供应商的选择与评价过程在本质上是多目标的，本文采用作业成本法计算由供应商引起的各种成本，由于作业成本法能将供应商在质量、价格、配送水平等各方面所引发的多个成本归结为单个成本，使得多目标的供应商选择问题变为单目标问题,从而增加了供应商选择过程的客观性。     

作业成本法在商业银行集中采购中的应用

本文在对现阶段商业银行集中采购的特点及存在的问题进行分析的基础上,就作业成本法在商业银行集中采购中应用的可行性和必要性、应用的程序及供应商选择评价模型等问题进行了探讨.本文还通过案例说明作业成本法在集中采购中的应用可以为商业银行在供应商的选择、评价及对供应商管理决策上提供相关可靠的信息.最后作者通过商业银行采购部门角色的转换、构建优秀的采购团队、供应商的入围选择、供应商的绩效评估及持续改进等方面对作业成本法在商业银行集中采购中的应用进行了总结,以期能对商业银行集中采购的成本管理控制提供有益的借鉴.