Seeing is believing: The future of healthcare lies in cost transparency

Healthcare spending has been on the rise and the trend is expected to continue. 

Singapore’s Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said during a supply debate last March that healthcare spend could become the biggest items in the bill, predicting that the S$20.9 billion budget in 2025 could rise to S$30 billion by 2030. 

Key drivers would be increased demand due to ageing population, new facilities, and rising manpower costs, with significant government investment focused on keeping care affordable. 

By 2030, one in four persons in Singapore would be aged 65 and above. This places the country as one of six internationally recognised Blue Zones where an ageing population with multiple co-morbidities often requires highly personalised care. 

Singapore is not alone in this story, with increasing global healthcare expenditures and life expectancies. 

But new technology and innovation offer different ways to manage the cost pressure. 

Civica’s Market Leader for Singapore, Stanimira Koleva, says that one of the most overlooked cost drivers in the ageing crisis is inefficient resource allocation due to limited visibility at the patient level. 

“It's difficult to identify where resources are being over-utilised or misaligned with patient outcomes without detailed costing data,” she explains. 

Managing cost with data 

For many healthcare providers, cost data is often siloed in finance departments.  

Civica’s CostMaster translates deep insights from these sources into actionable policy and structural reforms. 

The platform provides granular, patient-level cost transparency, enabling healthcare leaders to pinpoint high-cost areas, reduce unwarranted clinical variation, and make data-driven decisions that optimise both care quality and cost. 

This ensures that costing insights are integrated across clinical, operational, and policy-making layers. 

“We ensure the platform includes the tools necessary to make reporting insightful, responsive, and easily accessible, all of which is key in driving behaviour change at the ward, clinic, or theatre level,” Koleva says. 

This enables reforms such as shifting investments toward preventative care, community health programmes, and early intervention strategies, ensuring that cost data becomes a strategic asset, not just a financial record. 

Working with colleague John Doran, Head of Solution Strategy, Civica has been collaborating with Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) to transform how healthcare costs are understood and managed. 

Doran says that by delivering accurate, activity-based costing data with Civica’s CostMaster  platform, MOH clinicians and administrators can align care delivery with actual resource use. 

He explains that this has provided a clearer view of the clinical behaviours and costs, better resource allocation, and identified cost-effective care pathways, which is particularly important for managing chronic conditions prevalent in the elderly.  

“Ultimately, this supports a sustainable, value-based healthcare model that meets the complex needs of an ageing population,” he adds. 

Sustainable and resilient healthcare delivery  

The Covid-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the fragility of healthcare system when supply chains get disrupted.  

By leveraging real-time data and intelligent workflow automations, Doran believes that health provides can more accurately forecast clinical supply and demand  with the Civica Clinical Pathways software. 

This enables hospitals and health authorities to forecast resource needs, identify potential shortages, and optimise procurement cycles. 

The system is also used by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), supporting patient care across over 65 clinical specialities. 

“By aligning clinical activity with supply chain operations, our solution helps build resilience against disruptions, ensuring continuity of care even during global crises.  

“This is particularly critical in APAC, where diverse healthcare systems must remain agile and responsive,” he says. 

Building with flexibility in mind 

Civica Clinical Pathways is built with flexibility in mind to balance the need for streamlined, cost-effective pathways with the requirement for clinical flexibility and customisation, Doran says. 

While the solution promotes standardisation, it also allows clinicians to customise care plans based on individual patient needs, particularly for older adults with complex conditions.  

“The system captures and analyses deviations from standard pathways, providing insights that can inform future pathway refinements. This ensures a balance between consistency and personalisation, supporting both clinical autonomy and system-wide value-based care,” he explains.

Doran highlights how healthcare is  increasingly prioritising environmental stewardship.  

Civica’s tools, such as Clinical Pathways and CostMaster, can be configured to track the environmental impact of clinical decisions, including the carbon footprint of medical supplies and patient treatment  journeys. 

Users can then use the in-built reporting platform to navigate costs and  environmental impact across clinical  procedures, pathways, clinicians, or sites.   

“This way, we can help health systems align with climate goals while  maintaining quality. This data-driven approach supports greener procurement, waste reduction, and more sustainable care models, contributing to long-term system resilience,” he adds. 

The future of care and costs 

The shift from reactive to preventative care will be key to managing the financial and clinical demands of ageing populations globally. 

Koleva reiterates the transformative potential of predictive analytics to anticipate health deterioration and resource needs before they escalate into costly interventions. 

“By analysing historical and real-time data, AI can identify patterns that signal risk - such as early signs of chronic disease progression or likelihood of hospital readmission.  

“Civica is investing in these capabilities to enable proactive care planning, targeted interventions, and smarter resource deployment.”