Distinguish micro-costing from gross costing.

• A. Micro-costing measures every resource used; gross costing uses aggregate averages
• B. Micro-costing uses aggregated numbers; gross costing is precise
• C. Micro-costing is for large populations; gross costing is for individuals
• D. Micro-costing ignores unit costs; gross uses unit costs

Answer: (A)

The key idea is the level of detail and the approach to costs. Micro-costing is a bottom-up, resource-level method that records every resource used for a service—staff time, medications, supplies, equipment use, and other inputs—and assigns the actual unit cost to each item, then sums these to get a precise total. Gross costing, on the other hand, is a top-down approach that uses aggregated costs or average expenditures to allocate costs to services or populations without itemizing every resource. This makes micro-costing more accurate and data-intensive, ideal when exact resource use matters, while gross costing is quicker and suitable for budgeting or analyses across larger groups, though it sacrifices some precision and can obscure variation.