Activity-Based Costing in Health Services: An Application on COVID-19 Tests

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the unit costs of a laboratory’s COVID-19 tests—PCR, antibody, and antigen—using the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method and to compare them with the traditional costing method. In the study, activity centers were defined as “reception,” “sampling,” and “analysis,” and the resource utilization rates of each test were identified through process analysis. The findings revealed that the traditional method underestimated the unit cost of the PCR test by 4.83 TL, overestimated the antibody test by 9.71 TL, and overestimated the antigen test by 17.79 TL. The ABC method provided a more accurate determination of actual resource consumption and showed that the antigen test was performed in the shortest time (20 minutes) and at the lowest cost (35.36 TL). Consequently, the ABC method enables accurate cost estimation, efficient resource utilization, and reliable financial decision-making in healthcare institutions.