Article: 200 Top Coding Hospitals Likely to Fare Better Under MS-DRGs

Hospitals with the best coding practices are more likely to successfully transition to MS-DRGs, according to an Ingenix Innovations article published this week. The article focuses on the fourth annual "Top 200 Coding Hospitals" report from Ingenix that was released this week at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Convention and Exhibition in Philadelphia.

The following are excerpts from the article that quote Steve Greenberg, Ingenix senior vice president, Provider Solutions Group:

"Hospitals that can get up and running with a new system in this first year could actually increase revenues in the short terms and will experience fewer reimbursement headaches in the long term."

Smaller hospitals with fewer coding staff may have to work a little harder and a little smarter to accommodate the MS-DRG changes, Greenberg added, stating that smaller, more rural institutions with only a few coders will have to accept some reduced coding productivity while their coders get trained on MS-DRG codes, present on admission (POA) provisions, quality measures and other reporting requirements.

"For larger institutions with 50 coders, cycling five coders off for training won’t affect productivity that much,” he said, “but if you only have five coders, losing one to training can seem like a big hit. Hospitals should look at coder training education as an investment, though, because often big problems are caused not because someone is coding 'wrong' – they just don’t have any information on the details and that can cost you a lot of money."

The article also contains a list of the major areas of concern during the transition, and how hospitals can address those concerns.

Access the full article here.