Pricing
The pricing criteria for services in HUS hospitals are confirmed by the council of the joint authority. The main principle in pricing is that it supports a fair distribution of treatment costs between the municipalities.
The prices of services are determined once a year for the following year on a cost-based justification in order to cover all costs of operating the hospital. We follow the same pricing principles for patients of our member municipalities, other municipalities, and other payers. The chief executive officer approves the annually updated product and performance prices.
The pricing of services utilizes the productization of specialist medical care. The products consist of various services included in the treatment, and the price of the product includes the cost of all the performed services used in the treatment.
The price of a performance contained in an individual product shall be determined by the costs incurred in producing it. Pricing is therefore strongly based on cost accounting, in which we also take into account the anticipated changes in activities, production volumes, and cost levels. Upon agreement, we can also sell services as separate services. The productization of services helps in the service planning of municipalities and in the planning and monitoring of the activities of HUS units.
Some of the services sold differ in their characteristics, so that it is not sensible to price them using the above pricing principle. For example, the services of the Poison Information Center, costs related to patient insurance, the costs of the Medical Helpline assistance and prehospital emergency care are invoiced according to the actual costs in proportion to the population of each member municipality or hospital district.