Fourth annual “Top 200 Coding Hospitals” report comes at a pivotal time as the industry prepares for severity-adjusted reimbursement.
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., — October 8, 2007 — Ingenix, a leading health information company, today released its fourth annual report on the “Top 200 Coding Hospitals in the U.S.” The report ranks hospitals by the completeness and accuracy of their medical coding practices used to bill Medicare for inpatient medical services.
“This year’s Top 200 report comes at a pivotal time for the industry as hospitals prepare for Medicare’s transition to a severity-adjusted reimbursement system that will substantially change coding practices,” said Stephen Greenberg, senior vice president, Provider Solutions Group, Ingenix. “These changes create an additional incentive for hospitals to improve their clinical documentation and coding efforts, as the hospitals that code more completely could get a larger share of the reimbursement pool than those that continue to code based on today’s Medicare reimbursement rules.”
The new Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Groups (MS-DRGs) being implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) calculate reimbursement based on the severity of a patient’s condition, detailed in the medical coding of claims. Under the new reimbursement system, hospitals also must track and report numerous quality indicators, and adapt to Medicare’s new policy that disallows payment for specific hospital-acquired conditions. All of these factors will require substantial changes to existing coding practices.
To compile the Top 200 report and determine the rankings, Ingenix experts used the Ingenix HospitalBenchmarks.com® solution to analyze the recently released 2006 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) file. A total of 2,921 hospitals were included in the analysis and divided into four categories to better account for variations in the populations served by the different types of hospitals. The four categories and the top-ranking hospital in each category are:
- Rural, Non-Teaching: Springfield Hospital, Springfield, Vt.
- Urban, Non-Teaching: Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Fresno, Calif.
- Minor Teaching: Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Panorama, Calif.
- Major Teaching: John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, Chicago, Ill.
The nationwide Ingenix study and analysis of the findings may be viewed at http://www.ingenix.com/top200. The report also will be distributed at the Ingenix booth (#410) at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) National Convention, Oct. 6-11 at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
The Ingenix HospitalBenchmarks.com solution used to analyze the MedPAR data is a Web-based benchmarking tool that can be used for creating comparative performance profiles for any Medicare hospital in the nation. These profiles provide a snapshot of how a hospital is performing in the areas of coding, compliance, reimbursement and outcomes. HospitalBenchmarks.com has extensive drill-down tools to not only identify problem areas, but also to identify their source. Data can be viewed at the patient level to determine whether documentation and coding practices accurately represent services provided.
About Ingenix
Ingenix, a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), transforms organizations and improves health care through information and technology. Organizations rely on its innovative products, services and consulting to improve the delivery and operations of their business. More information about Ingenix can be obtained at http://www.ingenix.com.
HospitalBenchmarks.com is a registered trademark of Ingenix. All other company and product names mentioned may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. |
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