Full-service hospitals should absorb the financial impact of MS-DRGs better than specialty hospitals, which stand to lose up to five percent of their revenue due to changes to CMS's Inpatient Prospective Payment System.

That's according to an article in the Wichita Eagle, which summed up the issue as seen by some Kansas specialty hospitals:
More....

Just over a month into the new MS-DRG grouping methodologies, and there are still a lot of unknowns. In part two of my undocumented series, I would like to talk about MDC 3, where there is another large issue that is undocumented by CMS. This MDC—Ear, Nose, Mouth & Throat Conditions—has been the source of a lot of misinformation, inaccuracies and downright incorrect documentation.

Many of you may have read the final (and proposed rule) and seen the DRG consolidation table. The image below is directly from that table and it states that V24 DRGs 56-63 were combined into MS-DRGs 131, 132.
More....

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine provided an interesting perspective on Medicare’s new policy to not pay for specific hospital-acquired conditions. The article, “Nonpayment for Performance? Medicare’s New Reimbursement Rule,” appeared in the Oct. 18, 2007 issue.

The article applauds CMS’s efforts to realign the financial incentives within the DRG system, but also argues that these changes are only the initial components of a larger strategy:
More....

Ingenix conducts the Top 200 Coding Hospitals study each year to identify those hospitals that have the most complete and compliant coding operations. This year's report was released on October 9.

Recent online and print issues of Healthcare IT News include articles about the Ingenix Top 200 Coding Hospitals in the U.S. report. The article appeared in the Oct. 8, 2007 online issue of Healthcare IT NewsDay, and a similar article appears in the November 2007 print edition.
More....

CMS announced today that it has launched a new hospital-acquired condition (HAC) and present on admission (POA) information section on the agency’s Web site, which can be found at: www.cms.hhs.gov/HospitalAcqCond.

The site contains information on:
More....

I've been talking about MS-DRG since they were first unveiled back in April of this year. Since that time we have had lots of education and information about the MS-DRG system, but I’m amazed at how much about this new MS-DRG system remains clouded in mystery and intrigue amongst the majority of the industry. Because of this, I’m going to start a multiple part series talking about what is left undocumented in MS-DRGs. Over the next couple weeks I will blog on many of the issues within the MS-DRG grouping system that people in the industry still have misconceptions and misunderstandings about.

First off, let me say this: Do not use the CMS V24 to MS-DRG Crosswalk.  Wait, let me say it again: Do not use the CMS V24 to MS-DRG Crosswalk! Why do I say this? I say it because some of the crosswalk information is misleading at best, and downright incorrect in at least one situation. Over the next couple of weeks I hope to show you exactly what I mean.
More....