Abstract |
The Medicare Severity Diagnosis Related Groups (MS-DRGs) Grouper software classifies hospital case types into groups expected to have similar hospital resource use. Medicare uses this classification to pay for inpatient hospital care. Hospitals are paid a fixed price by Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) for treating Medicare patients. The groupings are based on diagnoses, procedures, other demographic information, and the presence of complications or co-morbidities. Minimally, the grouper consists of three programs. One of the programs consists of tables which contain information for all valid diagnoses, procedures, and DRGs. The diagnosis and procedure tables were prepared from the CPHA ICD-9-CM codes and abbreviated description tape (December 1979 revision) and the additional codes documented in the Federal Registers detailing final grouper changes for versions 24.0 through 32.0. Plain text (EBCDIC) versions of the tables embedded in the programs are supplied as well. |