Ingenix submits comments to CMS, offers our support
by Claire Kapilow
Ingenix, like other organizations with a stake in MS-DRGs, submitted a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) commenting on the Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule for FY 2008.
In that letter, dated June 11, we voiced our support for MS-DRGs. A severity-adjusted grouper is long overdue. We expressed our appreciation for the open and transparent manner in which CMS developed this severity-adjusted methodology. Like any system of this complexity, the DRG system will need further refinements down the road. We urged that future changes continue to be undertaken with a high degree of openness and transparency. We also suggested that CMS move to a four-character nomenclature (instead of three) to avoid problems we foresaw when coding complications and comorbidities (CCs), as well as major CCs. The letter has the details. Finally, we offered our assistance. Ingenix has an unusual perspective on the roll-out of MS-DRGs. Unlike many companies, a fair number of us here at Ingenix have been involved with the prospective payment system since the advent of DRGs. Underscoring this history and experience, we invited CMS to allow Ingenix and other qualified organizations to help test the new grouper. Our position is that the grouper should be made available as expeditiously as possible to qualified organizations that can thoroughly test the software before implementation, and report any issues discovered to CMS. Such advance testing could minimize the disruptions involved in switching DRG methodologies. You can read our comments in full by clicking here.
Posted: 6/27/2007
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