The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICMAI) has offered its voluntary services to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) with regard to the costing of the coronavirus tests to be carried out by the government or private pathological laboratories.
The Institute which comes under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in a letter written to the ICMR Director General, underlined that while ICMR has recommended putting a cap of INR 4500 for one of the Coronavirus text protocols, the decision was challenged in Supreme Court with the apex court ordering that the test be made free of cost. The ruling, however, has faced resistance from healthcare firms involved with these testing and have termed the ruling as impractical.
The Institute, in its letter, writes that one of the challenges today for any country is to carry put Coronavirus Tests for its population at an affordable cost. The Institute, further says, that it is ready to offer its services on a 'voluntary basis' to ICMR with regards to the costing of the coronavirus tests.
Healthcare Services fall under the ambit of maintenance of Cost Records and Audit under the Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules 2014 issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, also covering thereby trading and supply of medical devices. Hence, the members of the Institute, known as Cost and Management Accountants, are well versed with the nitty-gritty of the Healthcare business.
The Institute also cites Cost Accounting Standards and Generally Accepted Cost Accounting Principles, which has been embedded in the Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules 2014 issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, which enables a principle based approach for computing costs.
With the given background, the Institute has offered its services to deal with the costing of COVID-19 tests in order to increase the number of tests being done by laboratories on optimum cost. The Institute now awaits a response from ICMR.
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