Date: March 31, 2000
From: Chair, VERA Research Support Accounting Team
Subj: Final Report

To: VHA Chief Financial Officer (17)

The VERA Research Support Accounting Team was charged to develop a system to account for Medical Care funds expended to support research. The charge also requested preliminary data. In FY 2000 Research Support funds were explicitly identified in VERA allocations to Medical Centers in proportion to prior research activity, as shown by the level of research project funding.

The cost accounting system developed by the Team, the VERA Research Support Cost Report (VRSCR), can be applied to Research Support expenditures in FY 2000. The VRSCR is a series of Forms accompanied by Instructions. This proposed system defines rules for identifying the Research Support costs to Medical Care funds. These costs are in four categories:

• Clinician Investigators salaries
• Facilities
• Administration
• Other Clinical

The Team tested the VRSCR at 9 Medical Centers in the course of refining its design. The results of this test using a nearly final version are presented as preliminary data.

The Team believes that the proposed accounting system provides advantages that make it an improvement over other cost accounting approaches currently available because of several characteristics of the VRSCR:

• uses currently available expenditure data
• provides guidelines to standardize Research Support accounting so that it can be applied uniformly across the system
• defines for the first time in a cost report Clinician Investigators, the individuals who qualify for salary support from Medical Care funds for their research activities
• applies uniform rules for identifying costs that are simple, are evident in the Forms and Instructions, and can be expected to promote communication among leaders and staff responsible for patient care, research, and organizational management
• is structured so that refinements reflecting policy decisions can be incorporated in the Forms and Instructions with little difficulty

VHA Chief Financial Officer (17)

VA FORM
Mar 1989 2105

The members of the team approached this task with great seriousness and a willingness to consider a wide range of views and approaches. We believe that the proposed accounting system can effectively identify costs of Research Support, and that its implementation can enhance understanding concerning the kinds of research activities that VHA chooses to support.

Fred S. Wright, M.D.