Our Value to You

Want an inexpensive tool to make your analytic process 5% more accurate? How about 28%? RDRG V22.0 for 2009 is just out, and our comparison to MS-DRGs is even better than last year! Read on…

This year’s Medicare payment system is based on new severity-adjusted DRGs (called MS-DRGs). By now you have new software, and you’ve retrained your coding staff. If you’re like most hospitals, you may not have had time for much else.

But if you also began using these new CMS severity-adjusted DRGs in place of old-style unadjusted DRGs in your planning process, thinking they will produce more accurate analyses, it could be an expensive mistake.

Here are some facts…

• Accuracy - RDRG® is much more accurate analyzing costs.
  We asked the Rand Corporation to compare the accuracy of RDRG® and MS-DRG using their national database of Medicare discharges. RDRG® is 4.5% more accurate. And remember, CMS developed their product for Medicare! (click here for details- Table I*)
  
  Now that V22.0 for 2009 is out, we have re-run our comparison of RDRG to MS-DRG cost analysis performance using HCUP’s national all-patient database of over 7 million discharges. RDRG® is:
  • 6.8% better with the all-patient population (click here for details- Table II*)
  • 9.7% better with the under-65 patients (click here for details- Table III*)
  • 28.0% better with the under-18 patients (click here for details- Table IV*)
  
  Finally, we analyzed relative performance analyzing Length of Stay. RDRG® is:
  • 9.6% better with the all-patient population (click here for details- Table II*)
  • 7.9% better with the under-65 patients (click here for details- Table III*)
  • 9.9% better with the under-18 patients (click here for details- Table IV*)


• Easier and faster to use
  RDRG® is a simple program shell that can be installed on virtually any computer in only a few minutes, and it takes only seconds to process thousands of records. Far faster than any alternative. It uses the information already in your database. No new coding procedures.
• Transparent
  RDRG® logic is much easier to follow. It follows the familiar DRG nomenclature and structure you’ve used for years. The logic and the structure are spelled out clearly in our User Manual. It is so simple you could do it manually.
• Consistent year-to-year trend analysis
  RDRG® has maintained the same structure since 1990, updated each year for new ICD-9-CM codes. All prior year versions are available, and this year’s version has a mapping table to cover past years. By contrast, the MS-DRG structure was only adopted in the past year, so year-to-year trend analysis is not possible.
• Inexpensive
  The cost of RDRG® depends on the size of your hospital, but we guarantee it will be much less than any commercial alternative. Contact us for a quotation.

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