High interest in MS-DRG grouping

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent purchasers of its MedPAR limited data sets the following notice, dated Monday, May 14:

We have... received requests from the public for access to the Grouper that CMS used to develop the FY 2008 proposed changes to the MS-DRGs and the relative weights. Since the grouper cannot be made available prior to August each year, as an alternative, we are providing the previous year’s (in this case FY 2005) Expanded Modified MedPAR file which contains the current and new proposed MS-DRG assignments.

Clearly there is a large interest in MS-DRG grouping and analysis. As both hospitals and payers prepare for this change, it is imperative that they understand how the change in grouping systems is going to affect them from both an operational and financial perspective.

Ingenix offers a free grouper that can be used to examine the DRG changes, available at HospitalBenchmarks.com. If you want have a large volume of claims analyzed, feel free to send us an email.