Will There Be an X29? If So, When?

QUESTION

We are interested in an ICD-10 experimental grouper for version 29. We see that you have one for X28. Will you do one for X29? If so, when?

ANSWER

CMS hasn't released v29 for ICD-10 yet. It is built and we're trying to persuade them to post it on their site as early in January as they are back to work. 10 minutes after they've done that, we can be the first to offer X29, but we can't do so before.

Estimated CMI?

Your query to DRGGroupers.com:

My Boss wants an estimated CaseMixIndex  within 24 hours of admission.  I know that we have to default some fields, i.e. discharge status.  He wants me to compare the CMI using the 24 hours of data with the final CMI assigned after discharge.  Is this possible?  Does it even make sense for us to try?  Look forward to your response. 

Our reply:

Technologically, this is not hard. However it is not clear that the results would be meaningful, but that is your boss's call.

To assign a DRG, you need the following data elements:

(a) sex
(b) age
(c) diagnoses
(d) procedures
(e) discharge status

In the first 24 hours of an inpatient encounter, you would know the sex and age of the patient. You could assume that the discharge status will be "home" which will be very wrong sometimes. You could use the notoriously inaccurate admitting diagnosis and whatever procedures were performed immediately for the diagnoses and procedures.