Relevancia de la estimación de costos para la gestión hospitalaria

the public hospitals of decentralized management attend social security patients. the payments made by these institutions do not cover the costs incurred producing a cross-subsidy between the public sector and the social security. in the public hospital of bahía blanca, we analyzed the costs of three diseases and checked a cross-subsidy for $ 450.000 (u$s 113.900) in the period 2004-2008. the subsidy causes that the totality of the public resources is not supplied to the low-income population with major needs. the results of these studies are a valuable tool to agree on the payments to the social security sector and to improve the efficiency in the management of these hospitals.