Panhandle Medical Practice

Panhandle Medical Practice (Activity-Based Costing) Panhandle Medical Practice is a group practice o Show more Panhandle Medical Practice (Activity-Based Costing) Panhandle Medical Practice is a group practice owned by the areas leading hospital Panhandle Regional Medical Center. The practice includes both primary care and specialty physicians with an emphasis on internal medicine obstetrics pediatrics and surgery. The practice has three different locations each one staffed with a mix of primary care and specialist physicians. Traditionally ancillary services have been performed at the hospital. Still some ancillary services are best performed at the practice locations for one or more of the following reasons: lower costs increased physician efficiency and improved patient convenience. For example one of the practice locations now has a diagnostic imaging capability. When the scanner was moved from the hospital to the practice location volume increased costs decreased and both physician and patient satisfaction improved. The proposal now being considered is to provide ultrasound services at the practice locations. Preliminary analysis indicates that two approaches are most suitable. Alternative 1 involves the purchase of three ultrasound machines one for each of the practices three locations. Patients would schedule appointments generally at the location that they are using during preset times on particular days of the week. Then the full-time ultrasound technician would travel from one location to another to administer the tests as scheduled. In Alternative 2 patient scheduling would be the same but only one ultrasound machine would be purchased. It would be mounted in a van that the technician would drive to each of the three practice locations. Most of the operating costs of the two alternatives are identical but Alternative 2 has the added cost of operating the van and setting up the machine after each move. The two alternatives differ substantially in initial costs because Alternative 1 requires three ultrasound machines at a cost of $75000 each whereas Alternative 2 requires only one. However Alternative 2 requires a van which with necessary modifications would cost $40000. Thus the start-up costs for Alternative 1 total 3 $75000 = $225000 while those for Alternative 2 amount to only $75000 + $40000 = $115000. Note though that because the two alternatives have different operating costs a proper cost analysis of the two alternatives must include both initial (capital) and operating costs. The hospitals financial staff considered several methods for estimating the operating costs of each alternative. After much discussion they decided that the activity-based costing (ABC) method would be best. Furthermore an ad hoc task force was assigned the task of performing the cost analysis. To begin the ABC analysis the task force had to develop the activities involved in the two alternatives. This was accomplished by conducting walk-throughs of the entire process from the standpoints of the patient the ultrasound technician and the billing and collections department. The results are contained in Table 1. A review of the activities confirms that all except onemachine setupare applicable to both alternatives. The next step in the ABC process is to detail the costs associated with each activity. This step uses financial operational and volume data along with the appropriate cost driver for each activity to estimate resource consumption. Note that traditional costing which often focuses on department-level costs typically first deals with direct costs and then allocates indirect (overhead) costs proportionally according to a predetermined allocation rate. In ABC the activities required to produce some service including both direct and indirect are estimated simultaneously. For example Table 1 contains activities that entail direct costs (such as technician time) and activities that entail indirect costs (such as billing and collection). Although the ABC method is more complex and hence costlier than the traditional method it is the only way to accurately (more or less) estimate the costs of individual services. Activity cost detail on a per-procedure basis is shown in Table 2. In essence each activity is assigned a cost driver that is most highly correlated with the actual utilization of resources. Then the number of driver units along with the cost per unit is estimated for each activity. The product of the number of units multiplied by the cost per unit gives the cost of each activity. Finally the activity costs are summed to obtain the total cost per procedure. Many of the activity costs cannot be estimated without a volume estimate. The best estimate is that 50 procedures would be done each week regardless of which alternative is chosen. Assuming the technician works 48 weeks per year the annual volume estimate is 2400 procedures. Of course a much greater total volume can be accommodated under Alternative 1 with three machines than with Alternative 2 with only one machine. However to keep the initial analysis manageable the decision was made to assume the same annual volume regardless of the alternative chosen. In addition to the costs mentioned thus far some other costs are thought to be relevant to the decision. First in addition to the obvious costs of operating the van (primarily gas expenses) it is estimated that annual maintenance costs will run about $1000. Furthermore annual maintenance costs on each of the three machines under Alternative 1 are estimated at $500 while the annual maintenance costs for the single machine under Alternative 2 are estimated at a higher $1000 because of added wear and tear. Also the manufacturer of the ultrasound machines has indicated that a 5 percent discount may be available if three machines as opposed to only one are purchased. Finally to have a rough estimate of total annual costs over the life of the equipment it is necessary to make assumptions about the useful life of the ultrasound machines and the van. Although somewhat controversial the decision was made to assume a five-year life for both the ultrasound machines and the van. Furthermore the assumption was made that the value of these assets would be negligible at the end of five years. Assume that you are the chairperson of the ad hoc task force. Your charge is to evaluate the two alternatives and to make a recommendation on which one to accept. Because the revenues are assumed to be identical for the two alternatives the decision can be made solely on the basis of costs. As part of the analysis it will be necessary to estimate the costs of the two alternatives on a per procedure and annual basis. In addition any qualitative factors that are relevant to the decision must be considered before the recommendation is made. To keep the analysis manageable the task force was instructed to assume that operating costs remain constant over the useful life of the equipment. For comparative purposes this assumption is not too egregious because the activities are roughly the same for both alternatives and hence inflation would have a somewhat neutral impact on costs. TABLE 1 Panhandle Regional Medical Center Activities Associated with Alternatives 1 and 2 1. Appointment scheduling 2. Patient check-in 3. Ultrasound testing 4. Patient checkout 5. Film processing 6. Film reading 7. Billing and collection 8. General administration 9. Transportation and setup (Alternative 2 only) Questions 1. Estimate the base case cost of each alternative regarding the provision of ultrasound services. (For now ignore the discount if three units are purchased.) Show less