Detailed guide to costing for NHS providers and commissioners
The NHS, with encouragement from DH, is implementing patient-level information and costing systems (PLICS). The implementation of PLICS is not mandatory but DH strongly supports the use of PLICS within the NHS.
The broad benefits of patient-level information costing systems are:
PLICS Discussion Forum
user ID: PLICSuser
password: PLICSforum
The clinical costing standards have been developed to support the implementation and use of PLICS within the NHS. The use of the clinical costing standards is not mandated, however DH recommends that PLICS organisations adopt them.
The clinical costing standards seek to set out guidelines based on best practice and will result in high levels of consistency and uniformity in the costing methods used by the NHS.
This document outlines the mandatory requirements for the 2010-2011 reference costs collection. It updates and supersedes previous costing guidance. In a significant change to previous years much of the content of the NHS costing manual has been incorporated into reference costs guidance. It is anticipated that an updated NHS Costing Manual containing the overall principles of costing for NHS organisations will be published shortly
Published: 29/07/2010
The Department of Health, in partnership with the Audit Commission, has undertaken a review of reference costs, with the objectives of improving the accuracy of submissions and increasing the usefulness of the information provided. The scope of the review considered both the quality and use of cost data, in order to determine the best arrangements for future cost collection exercises.
The main remit of the group is to provide technical and practical advice on proposed changes and to support improvements to the annual reference costs collection guidance.
