V37 Release

Earlier today, we released versions of our products which support v37 of the US federal grouping algorithm, which version went into service on October 1st, 2019.

What's new with this year's release?

• Our 64 Bit Linux PHP, Perl and C objects are now created on a new platform, a cloud server.
  
• Our 32 Bit Linux products are one step closer to being retired: we are running out of platforms on which to build them. Please leave a comment if you are still using 32 bit executables.
  
• On a Windows 7 computer, our VB DLL is triggering warnings from Norton when we install it on a computer which runs Norton. These warnings can be safely ignored.
  
• We are planning on putting previous versions of our DRG Manual on-line for reference, attached to entries in this blog.

V37 Manual

The link to our v37 technical documentation is here: [link]

Which Executables Work With Which Masks Files?

QUESTION:
Which Executables Work With Which Masks Files?

ANSWER:
Our code base is effectively split into the original branch which supports ICD9cm codes and the new branch which supports ICD10 codes.

The original branch has version numbers which begin with f (for "federal") while the new branch has version numbers which start with v. The original branch starts with f2 and ends with f32. The new branch starts with v33 and is currently up to v36.

In order to assign a DRG, you need both the logic (which we encode in the software) and the attributes or "masks" (which we encode in masks files).

The original branch is backwardly compatible: f32 has all the logic for some early version (f6, I believe) up and including f32. (The versions are internally designated with letters, so each executable can only support 26 versions. We have an executable and masks which support f2-f5 but that combination is a special order item).

The new branch is not backwardly compatible: v33 only supports v33, v34 only supports v34, etc. So v36 cannot use v34 masks because it does not have v34 logic in it.

We have a project on the books to combine all the logic into a backwardly compatible super-set, but currently this project is inactive.