Get Grouper 32 Drg Weights & Geometric Mean Length Of Stay

The Case Mix Index (CMI) is the average relative DRG weight of a hospital's inpatient discharges, calculated by summing the Medicare Severity-Diagnosis Related Group (MS-DRG) weight for each discharge and dividing the total by the number of discharges.

Each DRG weight represents the average resources required to care for cases in that particular DRG, relative to the average resources used to treat cases in all DRGs. Congress recognized that it would be necessary to recalculate the DRG relative weights periodically to account for changes in resource consumption.

The average standardized cost per DRG shall be divided by the average standardized cost per case to determine the DRG relative weight.

AP-DRGs are similar to DRGs, but also include a more detailed DRG breakdown for non-Medicare patients, particularly newborns and children. The APR-DRG structure is similar to the AP-DRG, but also measures severity of illness and risk of mortality in addition to resource utilization.

A diagnosis-related group (DRG) is a patient classification system that standardizes prospective payment to hospitals and encourages cost containment initiatives. In general, a DRG payment covers all charges associated with an inpatient stay from the time of admission to discharge.

The main difference between DRG and MS-DRG is that Medicare Severity Diagnosis Related Groups MS-DRG adds the patient's severity of illness and risk of mortality to the DRG. The MS-DRG system was introduced in 2007 to better align payments with the actual costs of treating patients.

The MS-DRG payment for a Medicare patient is determined by multiplying the relative weight for the MS-DRG by the hospital's blended rate: MS-DRG PAYMENT = RELATIVE WEIGHT × HOSPITAL RATE.