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A Subset of Managerial Accounting

By Dr. David E. Marcinko MBA CMP®

http://www.MARCINKOASSOCIATES.com

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

Managerial and medical cost accounting is not governed by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as promoted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for CPAs. Rather, a healthcare organization costing expert may be a Certified Cost Accountant (CCA) or Certified Managerial Accountant (CMA) designated by the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB), an independent board within the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP).

The Cost Accounting Standards Board

CASB consists of five members, including the OFPP Administrator who serves as chairman and four members with experience in government contract cost accounting (two from the federal government, one from industry, and one from the accounting profession). The Board has the exclusive authority to make, promulgate, and amend cost accounting standards and interpretations designed to achieve uniformity and consistency in the cost accounting practices governing the measurement, assignment, and allocation of costs to contracts with the United States.

Codified at 48 CFR

CASB’s regulations are codified at 48 CFR, Chapter 99.  The standards are mandatory for use by all executive agencies and by contractors and subcontractors in estimating, accumulating, and reporting costs in connection with pricing and administration of, and settlement of disputes concerning, all negotiated prime contract and subcontract procurement with the United States in excess of $500,000. The rules and regulations of the CASB appear in the federal acquisition regulations.

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes are used to categorize data for the federal government.  In acquisition they are particularly critical for size standards.  The NAICS codes are revised every five years by the Census Bureau.  As of October 1, 2007, the federal acquisition community began using the 2007 version of the NAICS codes at www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html

Cost Accounting Standards

Healthcare organizations and consultants are obligated to comply with the following cost accounting standards (CAS) promulgated by federal agencies:

• CAS 501 requires consistency in estimating, accumulating, and reporting costs.
• CAS 502 requires consistency in allocating costs incurred for the same purpose.
• CAS 505 requires proper treatment of unallowable costs.
• CAS 506 requires consistency in the periods used for cost accounting.

The requirements of these standards are different from those of traditional financial accounting, which are concerned with providing static historical information to creditors, shareholders, and those outside the public or private healthcare organization.

Assessment

Functionally, most healthcare organizations also contain cost centers, which have no revenue budgets or mission to earn revenues for the organization.  Examples include human resources, administration, housekeeping, nursing, and the like.  These are known as responsibility centers with budgeting constraints but no earnings.  Furthermore, shadow cost centers include certain non-cash or cash expenses, such as amortization, depreciation and utilities, and rent. These non-centralized shadow centers are cost allocated for budgeting purposes and must be treated as costs http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

MORE:  CASE MODEL EOQ 1

Conclusion

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