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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Hospitals:

This October, Hospitals' IPPS Ship Comes In

Published on Sun Sep 26, 2004

More DRGs mean more money for hospitals.

Several diagnosis-related groups are on deck for updates, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Here's a peek at how the money will be flowing in October 2004. CMS will:

  • increase payment for burn patients who have respiratory failure and require the long-term use of mechanical ventilation;

  • increase payment for heart assist devices (including left ventricular assist devices) by reassigning them to the DRG for heart transplants;

  • split the DRG for tracheostomy into two new groups, to allow for a higher payment when an additional surgical procedure is performed with a tracheostomy;

  • provide higher payments for spinal fusions requiring two incisions by removing single-incision procedures from that DRG; and

  • carve out a new DRG for certain craniotomy procedures that involve the implantation of a chemotherapeutic agent, including acute complex central nervous system diagnoses.

     

     


     

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