The Secretary should improve the hospital inpatient prospective payment system by adopting, as soon as practicable, diagnosis related group (DRG) refinements that more fully capture differences in severity of illness among patients. At the same time, she should make the per discharge payment rates more accurate by basing the DRG relative weights on the national average of hospitals’ relative values in each DRG.
Improving Medicare’s payments for inpatient care and for teaching hospitals (A)
June 1, 2000