Accounting and the ‘Insoluble’ Problem of Health-Care Costs

Gebreiter, F.; Ferry, L.

Abstract

Health service accounting reforms are frequently promoted, explained or justified with reference to aging populations, expensive medical technologies and their purported implications for the cost of health care. Drawing on Foucault’s genealogical method, we examine the emergence of concerns regarding health expenditure in the wake of the creation of the British National Health Service in 1948, and their relationship with health service accounting practices. We argue that concerns regarding the cost of health care are historically contingent rather than inescapable consequences of demographic and technological change, and that health service accounting practices are both constitutive and reflective of such concerns. We conclude by relating our analysis to current attempts to control costs and increase efficiency in the health services.

Citation

Gebreiter, F., & Ferry, L. (2016). Accounting and the ‘Insoluble’ Problem of Health-Care Costs. European Accounting Review, 25(4), 719-733. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2016.1187073

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 22, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jun 21, 2016
• Publication Date: 2016
• Deposit Date: May 15, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 8, 2016
• Journal: European Accounting Review
• Print ISSN: 0963-8180
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-4497
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 719-733
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2016.1187073
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1404577