Revenue Allocation

Abstract

Until now, the revenue allocation of a hospital service has not received sufficient attention. Previous research done on this subject overlooked the details of revenue streams in the activity-based funding environment and has not introduced any technical dimension faced by new clinical costers. On the other hand, clinical costers (who manage clinical costing database) have a strong aversion to talking about revenue, because of the exclusion of revenue data collection and submission for most funding authorities. Clinical costing also tries to prevent revenue information from influencing on cost allocation methods. That makes research on this subject extremely difficult. However, the chapter uses a language called “revenue is an integral part of clinical costing” as an alternative way to explore this subject, including fine technical details. The benefits of investing in the revenue allocation process seem to exceed its cost, since the cost, revenue, and clinical outcomes could be analyzed in toto for delivering information on safety and quality of care.