DRGGroupers Tech Blog

Access-DRG Versions

2012-03-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

In order to keep up with MS-Access, we have had to split our Access-DRG product into two different products:

Access-DRG/2003, which should run under MS-Access 2000, 2002 and 2003. This is the good old ".mdb" version
Access-DRG/2007, which should run under MS-Access 2007. This is the new-fangled ".accdb" version

We have updated our product catalog and our retail web site, so you should now be able to get the version you need.

Note that this product is more-or-less useless without the VB-callable DLL, but the current VB-callable DLL is included with your Access-DRG purchase.

In the normal course of events, we expect you to buy Access-DRG once and VB-DLL subsequent year. You only need to buy Access-DRG again if and when Microsoft changes MS-Access enough to require a new app.

Re-release of Windows Installers

2012-03-01T08:23:00.003-08:00

We received a bug report that our windows installer for our VB-callable DLL did not work properly under at least some Windows 7 installations.

We use the Nullsoft Scriptable Installer System (NSIS) to create all of our windows installers. So rather than try to debug someone else's rather complex system, we did the usual Windows thing: we upgraded and tried again. And now it all works, hurray.

Just to be sure, we recreated all of our windows installers (see below) so there should be no other problems, at least until Windows 8 is released.

File Name	Product Code	O/S	Env	Ver	Comment
mhdrg.exe	CDLL	win32		f29.1	f29.1, new NSIS
mhi9tabf26.exe	CICD	win32		f29.1
mhdrgvb.exe	VBDLL	win32		f29.1
mhvbdrg.exe	VBDRG	win32	vb5	f29.1
mhicdvb.exe	VBICD	win32		f29.1
cgi-drg.exe	W32CGIDRG	win32		f29.1
drgfilt.exe	WINFILT	win32		f29.1
mhmasksXX.exe	WINMASK	win32		all of them: 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, v3

Will There Be an X29? If So, When?

2012-01-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

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?

2012-01-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

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.

Disease Costing

2011-11-22T06:50:00.001-08:00

QUESTION

I would like to know if the DRG batch Grouping come with already grouped diseases with costing?
If not how do we get disease grouping that we can begin to work with?

ANSWER

The short answer is that our software does not perform any financial calculations. However, the output of our DRG Assignment Engine (DAE) can be used as the input to many such calculations.

As we understand it, "disease costing" is the calculation of what an individual, group or community spends, directly or indirectly, as a result of a given health condition or conditions.

In the US, the DRGs were used as the basis of a prospective payment system for hospitals; each DRG is assigned a weight to represent the expected resource utilization (cost) of a typical inpatient stay for that DRG.

For more information, consult our manual's Reimbursement section.

In our experience, the usual method for disease costing using DRGs is to match either hospital-specific or regional "factors" with DRGs, so multiplying the factor times the DRG weight gives the expected disease cost for an individual case. Multiply again by the number of cases and you have the theoretical disease cost for the population under study:

Disease cost = (Number of cases with this DRG) x ((DRG weight) x (DRG factor))

We do not endorse or recommend any particular set of factors. We generally find such sets of factors to be published by the World Health Organization or local universities engaged specifically in this kind of research.

We are happy to provide support for implementing disease costing on a consulting basis.

Issue Downloading Software

2011-11-19T05:22:00.001-08:00

QUESTION
Hello,

I get a 403 forbidden error when trying to download the software I just
purchased, please advise. Details follow:

Forbidden. You don't have permission to access/downloads/DRGGroupers-613596.zipon this server.Additionally, a 404 Not Founderror was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle therequest

ANSWER

This was a problem with our web site building configuration. We have resolved this problem, both on the active site and in our development environment. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Why You Should Email Before Uploading Files

2011-11-11T03:58:00.001-08:00

Last night there was an unannounced upload to our drop box. We generally ignore unannounced uploads and allow them to be automatically deleted after a few days, on the assumption that it was a mistake or an attack. We happened to have the time to inspect last night's upload and deleted it immediately as it was obviously an attack.

It was named "s.php" but upon inspection with a text editor, far from any web server environment in which it might run, it turned out to be a rather old attack, c99shell.

This is an example of why we require that customers alert us via email before uploading files. It is a shame that we have to have this policy, but we do have to have it.

Dropbox Support?

2011-11-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

QUESTION

Do you support Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) for exchanging files?

ANSWER

Not yet; internally we have been trying out Dropbox and really like it, but we need to make sure that it meets our privacy standards first, and then we need to figure out how many of our clients are using it. We are certainly open to using it to exchange files; we should be able to accommodate individual cases as we continue our evaluation, so send us email if this is how you want to send or receive files.

Question About DRG27

2011-11-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

Hey there I currently have your v27 software and we recently put this into production for the current year.

My question is if it's backward compatible ?  I need to go back 3  years in my dataset and assign a drg value.  Can I use your software version to do this ? will it look at the service dates and assign a previous version ?  Or, must I buy a previous version or versions and apply based on the year ?

Thanks for your help.

ANSWER

(Before we start, I should point out the current version is F29, not F27; you can see the complete list of versions here:

http://www.drggroupers.com/grouper.html

For the purposes of this answer, I will assume that you knew this already and that you wanted F27.)

In order to assign DRGs for a given version, you need two things:

Logic, which we encode in software
Code attributes, which we encode in masks files

The software is always for a given version; in your case, that is F27. The software is backwardly compatible, provided that you have the masks files for previous vesrions.

So if you have software for F27 and want to assign DRGs for F24, then all you would need to do is to buy the masks file ($100 from our on-line store at the above link) for F24. In fact, you can buy masks files for any version before F28 and then be able to assign DRGs for that version.

File Upload

2011-11-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Customers often need to send us files as part of our DRG Assignment Service (DAS) and customers sometimes need to send us files as part of getting technical support.

To handle either case, we have added a File Upload page, powered by TransferBigFiles.com. This upload page is available from the navigation bar at the top of any of our web pages from our main site:

http://www.drggroupers.com

You can also reach it directly at

http://www.drggroupers.com/upload.html

Please let us know what you think.

Phone Support

2011-10-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

We have overhauled our internal phone system, in order to separate ourselves a bit from our parent company, M+H Consulting.

Since we have people in Oregon, Massachusetts and Connecticut, we know that our internal communication has sometimes been lacking.

You will still call 203-481-4885, but the extensions have changed:

Extension 104: Sales Support
Extension 105: Tech Support

With our new phone system, messages actively follow us around, so we hope to cut down on response time.

Where Is My Software?

2011-10-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

We just purchased the above referenced software on our Purchase Order
Number XXXXXXXXX.  The Pay-Pay Receipt number is XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.  At
the time the order was placed there was no shipping method specified.
Could we have the software emailed to us?

ANSWER

We are happy to email confirmed purchases. Your file is on its way, assuming that no email firewall between us intercepts it because it contains a .EXE file.

(If the email is rejected, we will send it via TransferBigFiles.com, a third party service. They will send you an email and you can use the link in that email to pull down your purchase.)

We hear that a purchase did not go through at least once a month, so we are writing up this answer in case our process is not intuitive.

The typical purchase should go like this:

You place the order
Our system confirms the payment
The software should start to download during your session
As a back up, an email is sent to you with a link

F29 Release: AIX Support

2011-10-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

We have just released DRGFilt for AIX.

The version of AIX under which we built and tested this executable is this:

AIX host-name 1 6 00C1FB204C00

We can build any of our Unix-based products for AIX, but DRGFilt is the only one popular enough to be in the on-line store: all others are built on-demand.

F29 Release: When AIX Support?

2011-10-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

When will the DRG for AIX be available for version 29?  I didn't see
anything on the tech blog about an ETA.

ANSWER

Excellent question, it should be available in about two hours (ie, about Noon Eastern Time today). Sorry for the poor communication.

F29 Release: Web Site Updated

2011-10-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

Our web site has been updated. This completes our initial F29 release.

F29 Release: Product Catalog

2011-10-13T12:23:00.001-07:00

Our product catalog is fully assembled except for the porting lab products, which are not done yet:

AIX DRGFilt
SPARC DRGFilt

F29: Support Changes

2011-10-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

As of F29, we no longer support the ICL rapid application development environment (IDE, BDE).

We have decided to continue support for 32 bit Linux this year, but we are on the fence about that, so we are going to take a poll about 32 bit Linux support for next year.

F29 Manual: What Changed

2011-10-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

We have revised our manual for F29. Here is what changed with the F29 version of the manual:

updated various dates in the text
fixed typo "appeneded" in various chapters
chapter 3: added documentation of bit string DAE outputs, per this tech support question.

F29 Standing Orders Have Been Filled

2011-10-12T13:47:00.001-07:00

Our pre-ordered F29 orders and our standing orders have been filled.

Left to do:

publish an updated manual
update our on-line store
release the updated web site

F29 Release: Windows Validation

2011-10-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

Win32 DRGFilt...Passed
Win32 C-callable DLL...Passed
Win32 VB-callable DLL...Passed
Win32 VB-DRG / VB-callable DLL compatibility...Passed
Win32 CGI-DRG...Passed
Win32 F29 ICD9 table...Passed
Win32 ICD labeling DLL...Passed

Win32 F29 masks installer...Passed
Win32 C-callable DLL installer...Passed
Win32 VB-callable DLL installer...Passed

Our windows product line is validated and ready for shipping.

F29 Release: Linux Validation

2011-10-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

F29 Linux Product Validation Log

Masks for F29...Passed
DAE Regression Test...Passed
Linux DRGFilt for F29...Passed
Demo Linux version of DRGFilt...Passed
Linux C Shared Object for F29...Passed
Linux Perl Shared Object for F29...Passed
Linux PHP Shared Object for F29...Passed
Linux CGI-DRG for F29...Passed

Details

Masks for F29...Passed
Validated the masks file against official list, which we found here. Not that some MS-DRGs are not defined, such as 9, 18, 19, etc.

DAE Regression Test...Passed
Ran the latest DAE through our regression testing suite.

[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     | --------SUMMARY-----------
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v29: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v28: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v27(poa): Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v27: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v26(poa): Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v26: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v25: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v24: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v23: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v22: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v21: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v20: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v19: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v18: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v17: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v16: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v15: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v14: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v13: Ok
[Tue Oct 11 16:33:41 2011]     |   v12: Ok

Linux DRGFilt for F29...Passed
Validated the DAE with DRGFilt against the test data set with this control file:

age 000 03
sex 003 01
ds   004 02
dxl 000 08
poa 000 07
dx   023 96
sgl 000 07
surg 223 98
exmp 006 01
# these are written out by us
drg 607 03
mdc 610 02
rc   612 02
dflg 614 15
sflg 629 15

Using our validation script, we compare the incoming DRG at offset 603 to our DRG at offset 607, the incoming MDC at 600 with ours at 610, the incoming RC at offset 598 with ours at 612.

Demo Linux version of DRGFilt...Passed
This free version only does F10. Validated it against our internal F10 dataset of 35,451 records.

Interactive Test Cases
We don't run the entire test dataset through our interactive UIs because it would be too much work for too little gain. Once we validate the core DAE, we validate the UIs with a sample of the official test dataset. This year that sample looks like this:

-------------------------------------------
   Age: 049
   Sex: F
  Disp: 01
   MDC: 21
   DRG: 908
  DX's:  Code :E:P where E=exempt flag P=present on admission flag
  DX01: 99679 : : 
  DX02: 25041 : : 
  DX03: 5859  : : 
  DX04: 2767  : : 
  DX05: 25051 : : 
  DX06: 36904 : : 
  DX07: 25061 : : 
  DX08: 3371  : : 
  DX09: 40290 : : 
  DX10: 2859:: 

Proc's:  Code 
  SG01: 3942   
  SG02: 3993   
  SG03: 3995
-------------------------------------------
   Age: 059
   Sex: M
  Disp: 01
   MDC: 01
   DRG: 074
  DX's:  Code :E:P where E=exempt flag P=present on admission flag
  DX01: 3564  : : 
  DX02: 2639  : : 
  DX03: 311   : : 
  DX04: 2761  : : 
  DX05: 5601  : : 
  DX06: 5180:: 

Proc's:  Code 
  SG01: 9383   
  SG02: 9339

-------------------------------------------
   Age: 050
   Sex: M
  Disp: 01
   MDC: 04
   DRG: 182
  DX's:  Code :E:P where E=exempt flag P=present on admission flag
  DX01: 1628:: 

Proc's:  Code 
  SG01: 324    
  SG02: 3409   
  SG03: 8965   
  SG04: 9396

-------------------------------------------
   Age: 077
   Sex: F
  Disp: 03
   MDC: 08
   DRG: 563
  DX's:  Code :E:P where E=exempt flag P=present on admission flag
  DX01: 81611 : : 
  DX02: 25081 : : 
  DX03: 2512  : : 
  DX04: E8849 : : 
  DX05: 3319  : : 
  DX06: 04110 : : 
  DX07: 8831:: 

Proc's:  Code 
  SG01: 7904   
  SG02: 9659   
  SG03: 8659

-------------------------------------------
   Age: 081
   Sex: F
  Disp: 01
   MDC: 02
   DRG: 117
  DX's:  Code :E:P where E=exempt flag P=present on admission flag
  DX01: 3659:: 

Proc's:  Code 
  SG01: 1279

Linux C Shared Object for F29...Passed
Validated the Linux C shared object with this test case, to also confirm that the used codes bit flag handling is now correct:

-------------------------------------------
   Age: 055
   Sex: F
Disp: 01
   MDC: 08
   DRG: 455
DX's: Code :E:P where E=exempt flag P=present on admission flag
DX01: 71500 : :Y

Proc's: Code
SG01: 8134
SG02: 8135

Raw return value from mhdrg:
0^8^455^29^5.6449^0.00^ ^COMBINED ANTERIOR/POSTERIOR SPINAL FUSION W/O CC/MCC                  ^1^11

Deconstructed return value from mhdrg:
rc=0, mdc=8, drg=455, ovn=29, weight=5.6449, mean=0.00, porm=
desc=COMBINED ANTERIOR/POSTERIOR SPINAL FUSION W/O CC/MCC
dx flags:1, px flags: 11

Expected result: RC: 0 MDC: 08 DRG: 455

Significant ICD codes:
* DX code 1 was used
* Proc code 1 was used
* Proc code 2 was used

Linux Perl Shared Object for F29...Passed
Validated the Perl shared object against the same test case as C shared object.

THIS YEAR, WE WILL HAVE TO CHANGE OUR PROCESS TO HANDLE THE 5.8 VS POST-5.8 DIVIDE, AS WELL AS MULT-THREADED VS NOT-MULTI-THREADED.

Linux PHP Shared Object for F29...Passed
Validated the Perl shared object against the same test case as C shared object.

Linux CGI-DRG for F29...Passed
Validated the Linux CGI-DRG against same test case as C shared object.

Expected F29 Release: still 10/12/11

2011-10-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

Development has turned over the ICD9 F29 DAE to us for validation, a process we expect to complete in time for a release tomorrow.

The ICD10-prototype-for-F28, which we call X28, will be out of development soon.

Version 29 of ICD10 won't be released until January, 2012, so development won't be done with X29 until the end of January, 2012, at the earliest.

Expected F29 Release: 10/12/11?

2011-10-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

When we predicted that we would do a release on 10/10/11, we forgot that 10/10/11 is a holiday hereabouts and that we are closed for business. We will need at least a day to get ready after we get back to work, so we are looking at 10/12/11 at the earliest now.

Web Site Overhaul for F29

2011-10-08T15:37:00.001-07:00

As part of our annual release this year, we are overhauling our web site.

We expect to release the new web site when we release the new version. We still expect to do the release sometime on October 10th, 2011.

We hope that the streamlining will make the site more useful to our customers. Let us know if it does not.

Expected F29 Release: 10/10/11

2011-10-07T03:40:00.000-07:00

We were not able to get our release out yesterday; we currently expect to do the release on Monday, October 10th.

Codes Used in DRG Assignment, Continued

2011-10-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

This is a follow-up to an earlier question.

When I use this.......
---------------------------------------------
$retval = mhdrgc::mhdrg(
         #'f26p',                        # which DRG version you want
         'f28',                        # which DRG version you want
         '/home/programmer/grouper',        # path to masks files
         '1',                        # discharge status (home)
        '72',                        # patient age on admission
        '2',                        # patient sex (1=male, 2=female)
        # ICD DX codes
         '3313    3312    Y49320  Y5990   N7812   Y3051   Y73300  Y3004   Y3320   Y71598  Y412    ',
        # ICD procedure codes
        '0331            ',
        '8',                        # length of each ICD DX code
        '7',                       # length of each ICD procedure code
     );
------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm putting in 11 DX codes and 1 procedure code.

What I get back is this...
---------------------------------------------
0^1^57^28^0.9350^0.00^ ^DEGENERATIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS W/O MCC                         ^1^0


The blog states ...
"The strings are positional: 1001 means that the first code was used, codes two and three were not but code four was. "

Shouldn't the output be more like 
0^1^57^28^0.9350^0.00^ ^DEGENERATIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS W/O MCC                         ^10000000000^0

That is, 3313 was used, but the other ten weren't?

ANSWER

You are referring to the bitstrings of which diagnoses or procedures that were used in the DRG assignment. For the DRGFilt product, these are sflg and dflg keywords.

You are correct, there is a bug in the interface routine. What we see at the lowest level, when we run your example through our testbed, is this:

Diagnosis flags=(100000000000000000000000000000)
Procedure flags=(000000000000000)

So somewhere between the DAE and the Perl interface,the output is being stripped of trailing zeroes, which is not what we want in this case.

We have opened an internal bug and expect to have this fixed in the upcoming release.

Expected F29 Release: 10/06/11

2011-10-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Due to popular demand, this year we are publishing an expected release date for a version.

We expect to release support for version 28 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2011, on October 6th, 2011.

If you have pre-ordered from us, we expect you to have your software by close of business on October 6th, 2011.

We expect to publish an updated manual at the same time.

ICD10 Readiness

2011-09-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

As a business partner, we are contacting you to establish what your
current ICD-10 readiness posture is and if your organization has a
comprehensive action plan designed to assure that your systems and data
will be able to accurately transact both ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes.

ANSWER

We are well on our way to full ICD10 support; we expect to maintain backward compatibility for ICD9. For details, see the "ICD10-Based DRG Prototype" link at the top of this page.

APR or MS DRGs?

2011-09-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

what version of DRGs are being used in your batch filter program APR or MS ?

ANSWER

We support only the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm. This algorithm is also called the "MS DRGs" (Medicare & Medicaid Services) and the "CMS DRGs" (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services).

We used to support New York state DRGs and a few others, but we got out of that business a while ago.

APR (All Payor, Refined) DRGs are a 3M thing and you find more information on their web site:

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3M_Health_Information_Systems/HIS/Products/APRDRG_Software/

How Many DX Codes?

2011-09-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

Your documentation states that the groupers currently only utilize up to nine diagnosis codes. Are you planning on increasing that number to 25 in conjunction with the recent changes CMS has implemented?

ANSWER

Our ICD9-based DRG Assignment Engine supports up to 15 diagnosis codes. Our ICD10 prototype currently supports 30 diagnosis codes, but we only commit to supporting the expected 25.

Annual Release Dates

2011-09-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

I just wanted to get a status update on the release date of the new grouper for this year and get on the list to obtain it as soon as possible.

ANSWER

Our products track with the US Federal (CMS) versions. They release on or about October 1st every year. We try to release as close to October 1st as we can. We usually release within five business days of October 1st. On rare occasion, we are later or earlier.

We cannot guarantee a release date as the CMS releases vary greatly in size and complexity.

We are aware that many of our customers need the release to be as close to October 1st as possible, so we are working hard this year to make sure that this happens, even as ICD10 looms over us.

Codes Used in DRG Assignment?

2011-08-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

Hi Tech Support,

The PDF is very informative but it appears to be missing explanation of a couple of the output codes. I get ten bits of info but only first eight appear to be documented in the grouper's documentation PDF ("UNIX Embeddable Grouper API": pages 31-32). Those are .......

1. Grouper return code
2. Major Diagnostic category of assigned DRG
3. DRG assigned to patient encounter
4. DRG version number used to assign DRG
5. The weight of the DRG
6. Geometric mean length of stay for DRG
7. PorM flag
8. DRG description

The string I had returned to me by the grouper was....
0^1^57^28^0.9350^0.00^ ^DEGENERATIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS W/O MCC ^1^0

It's the last two fields of "1" and "0" that appear to be undocumented.

The last question I have is regarding the significance of diagnosis codes. When feeding a list of diagnosis codes into the grouper, is there a way to determine which of the diagnosis codes were significant in the grouper's decision making? I ran across something like that on page 22 (section labeled "Output") of the PDF that you folks package with the grouper.

Thanks so much for all of your assistance.

ANSWER

The lack of documentation for these fields is definitely an oversight, thank you for pointing this out. We will include these fields in the updated manual when we release it this coming October.

Those two fields are ASCII-ified bit strings of which codes were used in the DRG assignment. The first field is a string of diagnosis bits and the second string is a string of procedure bits. The strings consist of either an ASCII '1' or an ASCII '0'. A one means "this code was used" and a zero means "this code was not used."

The strings are positional: 1001 means that the first code was used, codes two and three were not but code four was.

ICD10 Transition?

2011-08-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

How are you handling the transition to ICD10, especially the years that both ICD9 and ICD10 are supported?

ANSWER

The prototype ICD10 grouper we built was x28 -- FY2011 ICD-10 codes and grouper logic equivalent to f28. The FY2012 ICD-10-PCS (procedure) codes are published, and the FY2012 ICD-9 MS-DRG grouper (f29) will be available in early October 2011, but the FY2012 ICD-10-CM diagnoses are not going to be released by NCHS until December 2011. Hence, no FY2012 ICD-10 MS-DRG grouper (x29) can be produced before January 2012.

The plan is that starting FY2013, there will be no changes to ICD-9 and the FY2013 ICD-10 codes will be available on or before October 1, 2012, so f30 will be the same as f29 and x30 will be available for the start of FY2013. For testing purposes, users coding in ICD-10 will have to code in the FY2011 ICD-10 and use the x28 grouper until January 2012.

CGI Demo Version

2010-11-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

I am interested in your product CGI-DRG (f24) for Windows, but your demo does not work. Can I get a trial version before buying?
Thanks.

ANSWER

We find that keeping a CGI script working on an ISP's host is a constant struggle. We should probably give up. We are happy to send you an F10 CGI-DRG for you to try; just remember to tell us whether you are running under Windows or Unix.

F28 Released

2010-10-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 28 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2010, has just been released.

How Does Access-DRG Work?

2010-09-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

How does the Access front-end work? (ie. Can I link into a SQL Server dataset (as an input) and have the Access-DRG spit out the results into a SQL Server dataset?

ANSWER

Access-DRG is not really a front end, it is a self-contained app. You load data into it, you call its DRG Assignment function (which, in turn, calls our VB-callable DLL) and it does in-place DRG assignment.

If you want to read data from a database server, assign a DRG and put the results back onto the database server, you probably want to get our VB-callable DLL and write your own simple program to read, call and write. Or you can use DRGFilt and the import/assign a DRG/write method described in a DRGFilt posting.

Version NN Invalid

2010-07-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

We executed an unix command from PL/SQL stored procedure and got the 'Version 27 Invalid' message from DRGFilt, but executed the same command directly from unix box in putty, everything was fine. The following is the command:

'/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/bin/drgfilt_lnx_64 -0 f27 drgmasks.f27 /home/mhuang/DRGFilt_control.txt </home/mhuang/DRGFilt_input.txt >/home/mhuang/output.txt'

What does the 'version 27 Invalid' mean to DRGFilt? Also can we add our custom keyword in the control file? We plan add more fields into the control file.

ANSWER

re: "Version 27 Invalid"
This means that version 27 could not be initialized. Usually, this means that the drg masks file could not be found or could not be read.

re: custom keywords
No, DRGFilt does not allow custom keywords; however, you can put line comments into the file so long as those comments are preceded by a sharp sign, like this:

sex 156 1
# this is a line comment
#mykey=5

Length of Stay ALOS vs GLOS

2010-04-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

I have your v27 DRG grouper software and it appears that it returns the
Geometric mean Length of Stay (GLOS) for each DRG. Is there any way to get
the Arithmetic mean Length of Stay (ALOS)?

I am using DLL calls from your software's "mhinfo" function to get the
GLOS. Please let me know. Thank you.

ANSWER

I have done some digging and discovered that, as you confirmed, the ALOS is not exposed through this API. You would have to match up the DRG with its ALOS explicitly in your code.

In order to help you with that, please find attached the spreadsheet published by CMS with this information in it. [Note: file was attached to support email, but is not reachable from this blog posting.]

VB.Net?

2010-01-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

QUESTION

We have a use primarily Microsoft architecture and program in VB.net and C# (preferably VB.net).  Your VB callable DLL seems like a good fit for our needs, however I would like to know if you could provide a .Net framework code example that calls your DLLs.

ANSWER

We have an uneasy relationship with VB.Net because we never took the step of making our DLLs registered. However, some of our customers do call our VB-callable DLL as unmanaged code in the VB.Net environment. The sample code we give out is this:

-----------------------------------

REM-----------------------------------------------------------------
REM VB .NET programmers: (Jan-2004)
REM-----------------------------------------------------------------
REM You will want to implicitly allocate storage for the strings you
REM pass to our DLL functions, like this: VerStr = Space(80)
REM You will also probably want to use DllImport and specify the
REM character coding as ANSI
REM-----------------------------------------------------------------
REM
Option Explicit

Private Declare Function mhicd Lib "mhicdvb.dll" (ByVal which As String, _
ByVal file As String, ByVal code As String, ByVal retval As String, _
ByVal length As Integer) As Integer
Private Declare Function mhdllver Lib "mhdrgvb.dll" (ByVal Buf As String, _
ByVal BufLen As Integer) As Integer
Private Declare Function mhdrg Lib "mhdrgvb.dll" (drg As Integer, _
ByVal DRGVersion As String, ByVal MasksPath As String, ByVal DischStat As String, _
ByVal PtAge As String, ByVal PtGender As String, ByVal DXList As String, _
ByVal ProcList As String) As Integer
Private Declare Sub mherrdesc Lib "mhdrgvb.dll" (ByVal Buffer As String, _
ByVal length As Integer)
Private Declare Sub mhinfo Lib "mhdrgvb.dll" (drg As Integer, _
ByVal DRGVersion As String, ByVal MasksPath As String, mdc As Integer, _
weight As Double, los As Double, ByVal Desc As String, ByVal DescLen As Integer)
Private Declare Function mhcodeused Lib "mhdrgvb.dll" (ByVal which _
As String, ByVal codeindex As Integer) As Integer
Private Declare Function mhdrgver Lib "mhdrgvb.dll" (ByVal MPath As String, _
ByVal Buf As String, ByVal BufLen As Integer) As Integer

Private Sub AssignDRG()
Dim ErrMsg As String * 256
Dim ReturnCode As Integer
Dim drg As Integer, mdc As Integer
Dim Desc As String * 80
Dim weight As Double, los As Double
Dim masksdir As String
Dim myver As String, mydstat As String, myage As String, mysex As String
Dim mydxbuf As String * 80
Dim mypxbuf As String * 80
Dim tempStr As String
Dim N As Integer, needcomma As Integer

'Loop through controls, getting their current values
masksdir = Command
myver = Me!ver
mydstat = Left$(Me!dstat, 1)
myage = Me!age
mysex = Left$(Me!sex, 1)

'make string out of the diagnoses codes
tempStr = ""
needcomma = 0
For N = 0 To 9
If Len(Me!dx(N)) > 0 Then
If needcomma <> 0 Then
tempStr = tempStr & ","
End If
needcomma = 1
tempStr = tempStr & Me!dx(N)
End If
Next N
mydxbuf = tempStr

'make string out of the procedure codes
tempStr = ""
needcomma = 0
For N = 0 To 14
If Len(Me!proc(N)) > 0 Then
If needcomma <> 0 Then
tempStr = tempStr & ","
End If
needcomma = 1
tempStr = tempStr & Me!proc(N)
End If
Next N
mypxbuf = tempStr

'call the M+H grouper with what you got
Me!results = ""
ReturnCode = mhdrg(drg, myver, masksdir, mydstat, myage, mysex, mydxbuf, mypxbuf)
If ReturnCode <> 0 Then 'drg assignment failed, alas!
Call mherrdesc(ErrMsg, 70) 'tell user about failure
Me!results = "DRG Assignment FAILED: " & ErrMsg
Else 'drg assignment worked, hurray!
'get the particulars of this DRG from M+H dll
Call mhinfo(drg, myver, masksdir, mdc, weight, los, Desc, 80)
Me!results = "DRG: " & drg & " " & Desc
Me!info = "MDC: " & mdc & " Weight: " & weight & " Mean LOS: " & los & " Version: " & myver
'which dxes were used?
For N = 0 To 9
If mhcodeused("d", N) Then
Me.dx(N).FontBold = True
Else
Me.dx(N).FontBold = False
End If
Next N
'which procs were used?
For N = 0 To 14
If mhcodeused("p", N) Then
Me.proc(N).FontBold = True
Else
Me.proc(N).FontBold = False
End If
Next N
End If

End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim VerStr As String * 80, MaxVer As Integer, MPath As String
Dim DRGVers As String * 81, N As Integer, I As Integer

'expect the masks directory as a command line argument
If Command = "" Then
MsgBox (Me.Caption & " " & Chr(10) & Chr(10) & _
"Required command line argument 'Masks Directory' is missing" & Chr(10) & _
"(This is the path to the directory with DRG Masks files and the ICD9 file")
End
End If
MPath = Command

'get the DLL version
MaxVer = mhdllver(VerStr, 79)
Me.Caption = Me.Caption & " " & VerStr

'get the supported DRG versions
N = mhdrgver(MPath, DRGVers, 81) ' deal with error, if any
I = 1
Do While N <> 0
Me.ver.AddItem (Mid$(DRGVers, I, 2))
If I = 1 Then
Me.ver.Text = Mid$(DRGVers, I, 2)
End If
N = N - 1
I = I + 2
Loop
'initialize sex list
Me.sex.AddItem "1 Male"
Me.sex.AddItem "2 Female"

'initialize discharge status list
Me.dstat.AddItem "0 Unknown"
Me.dstat.AddItem "1 Home"
Me.dstat.AddItem "2 Other Hosp"
Me.dstat.AddItem "3 SNF"
Me.dstat.AddItem "4 ICF"
Me.dstat.AddItem "5 Other Inst"
Me.dstat.AddItem "6 Home Care"
Me.dstat.AddItem "7 AMA"
Me.dstat.AddItem "8 Expired"
End Sub

Private Sub dx_Change(index As Integer)
Dim retval As String * 24

Call mhicd("d", Command & "/icd9.tab", Me.dx(index).Text, retval, 23)
Me.ddesc(index).Caption = retval
End Sub

Private Sub proc_Change(index As Integer)
Dim retval As String * 24

Call mhicd("p", Command & "/icd9.tab", Me.proc(index).Text, retval, 23)
Me.pdesc(index).Caption = retval
End Sub

-----------------------------------

How Do I Update?

2009-12-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

QUESTION

Last year, my company purchased the MS Access version of your grouper
(v25) and we are interested in updating the version to v26.  I am under
the impression that I can do that by simply purchasing a mask, but
before I do that I would like confirmation that is the case.

ANSWER

Sadly, the short answer is "no, you need more than the masks."

Because of the way that DRG versions are defined, you need both logic (encoded in software) and the code-specific attributes (encoded in masks) to assign a DRG. So, in effect, every year's version is a brand new product.

For your convenience, we provide backward compatibility for our products. This means two things:

If you want to support DRGs prior to the version you own, all you have to purchase is a masks file.

If you keep the masks files and keep buying new software, your new software can assign DRGs in any version from the current version back to any earlier version.

So you have to buy new software every year, but you can use that software to replace previous versions if you wish to.

Demo Version?

2009-11-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

QUESTION

I spoke to you on the phone a week or so ago re: your Excel product. We are very interested in purchasing the product, but I was wondering if we could get a demo or an older version to test to see if it meets our needs?

ANSWER

Certainly. We do not have a demo version per se; instead we offer very old versions of our software as a way to try before you buy.

Where Is DRG Algorithm?

2009-11-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

QUESTION

On your page at http://www.drggroupers.com/drgs.html you mention that the CMS DRG grouping algorithm is public.  I assume the same is true for the APC grouping algorithm.  How can one find or purchase a description of the algorithm (human readable)?

ANSWER

The CMS DRG grouping algorithm is available from 3M. We don't deal with APC DRGs, so we cannot help you there.

Grouping Data in Oracle

2009-11-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

QUESTION

I am interested in running a DRG grouper against large (over a million records) data sets.  My Oracle data warehouse sits on a Solaris box, but I also have windows and linux servers if needed.

I simply want to assign DRGs to my data set.  So, I'm interested in information on how to do this and what product would be right.  It'd also like to get something in house to to ensure that we can actually use it.

ANSWER

If you are not a programmer, then the way to do this would be with DRGFilt:

Export your data as fixed-width text
Create a DRGFilt control file to match your export
Run your text file through DRGFilt
Import the DRGFilt output

DRGFilt outputs all the input data, plus the DRG (and MDC and whatever else you configured), so you can import the DRGFilt and do whatever you like with it.

If you are a programmer, you can get an embeddable DRG Assignment product and call it from a program. Supported environments are Windows or most Unixoid systems. Supported runtime environments are Perl, Visual BASIC, PHP and C. A typical program will do the following:

Select rows out of your database
Process each row one at a time
Extract the DAE inputs from the row
Call the DAE
Parse out the DAE outputs from the call
Either update the original row or create a new row

Finally, if you do not want to do the work yourself, or do not want to deal with the version question (ie, which version DRGs do I use for this given record?) you can use our DRG Assignment Service (DAS) to do the work. In that case, the steps are these:

Extract your data, without PHI
Send us the extract, along with your preferences for the returned data set
Usually in one, but sometimes in up to three business days, you get the data
Import or process the data set returned by us

F27 Released

2009-10-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 27 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2009, has just been released.

Java Support?

2009-09-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

Do you support Java?

ANSWER

We have a Linux 32-bit and a Linux 64-bit implementation for Java which we built with SWIG, but we do not have it in our product catalog because we have never had anyone ask for it. We are confident that we could build a Java-callable module for most Unix systems if we ever find anyone who wants such a thing.

ICD9 Look Up

2009-08-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

Is there functionality to do a text search of the ICD-9 that would return the ICD-9 number?  Is there some sort of documentation of all the functions and sub procedures that come with the Drg dll and Icd-9 dll?

ANSWER

There is no text search support in our ICD9 handling; it is tool for labeling a given ICD9, not for choosing an ICD9.

There is scads of documentation on the procedures and how to call them. I have attached our manual here, though you should have received a copy with your order.

How to Use POA

2009-05-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

As yoyu know, DRG versions 25 and up require the use of the Present On Admission (POA) indicator associated with ICD9 diagnosis codes for the grouping of DRGs. Your grouper software does support versions 25 and 26, but no where in your documentation do I find any reference to POAs and how they should be fed into the data file, or defined in the control file.

We need this information asap in order to ensure that the grouper is working correctly. Please email or call me at your earliest convenience.

ANSWER

Please find attached our most recent documentation, which has a healthy entry in the Index under POA.

I am not sure which of our products you are using, but POA should be supported across the product line. To quote the docs on POA support in general:

Note: as of version 26, released in 2008, the DRG version can have either
a 'p' or an 'e' or both appeneded to it. If there is a trailing 'p', it
is assumed that the last character of every diagnosis code is a POA flag.
If the there is a trailing 'e', then the source institution is presumed
to be exempt from the HAC. Thus "26p" specifies POA support, while "26"
does not. "25p" does not make sense.

To quote the glossary on POA:

In order to avoid paying for medical mistakes, diagnoses are now
flagged as having been present on admission (POA).

The values for the POA flag are not, as one might expect, simply
Y or N; rather the following options are defined:

-Y for Yes
-N for No
-U for Unspecified
-W for clinically undetermined
-1 for unreported / not used / exempt from reporting

To quote from Chapter 5, on our DRGFilt product:
The keyword "poa " specifies where, in the diagnosis code, to find the
POA flag. If the diagnosis code length (specified by dlx) is 8, it is
typical to find the POA flag at offset 7, that is to say the last character
of every code.

The keyword "exmp" specifies that the institution from which these data
come is exempt from the HAC.

Note that if neither of these keywords is present, the software assumes that
POA is irrelevant and that the source institution is to be treated as exempt
from the HAC.

Validating a DRGFilt Control File

2008-10-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

I find the DRGFilt control file format kind of hard to understand. How can I be sure that I got it right?

ANSWER

We hear you: the control file format is showing its age: it was derived from a format that originated on punch cards (!).

We use the following Perl script to validate our control files in-house:

Sample usage
In the examples below, replace "control-file" with the name of the control file you are validating, and "data-file" with the name of the data file you are running against. For extra credit, replace "pt-id" with the patient, claim or record ID you are looking for.

Unix

perl chkcntl.pl control-file < data-file | more
head -20 data-file | perl chkcntl.pl control-file | more
fgrep pt-id data-file | perl chkcntl.pl control-file

Windows

perl.exe chkcntl.pl control-file < data-file | more
perl.exe chkcntl.pl control-file < data-file > output.txt

Sample Perl Code

# chkcntl.pl - program to check a control file

my($sgl,$dxl,$recLen,%h) = Load(shift(@ARGV));

while (defined(my $l = <>)) {
    $l =~ s/\r|\n//g;
    # pad out input with astericks if too short
    while (length($l) < $recLen) { $l .= '*'; }

    my $output = "";
    foreach my $key (sort (keys %h)) {
    my $ref = $h{$key};
    my($name,$off,$len) = @$ref;

    my $val = substr($l,$off,$len);
    $output .= sprintf("%4.4s@%3d for %2d:",$name,$off,$len);

    if ($name =~ /^(dx|surg)$/i) {
        $output .= AddBar($val, ($name =~ /dx/i)? $dxl : $sgl);
    } else {
        $output .= $val;
    }

    $output .= "\n";
    }
    print $output,"\n";
}

exit(0);
#-----------------------------------------------------------------
sub AddBar {
    my $val = shift;
    my $len = shift;

    my $inLen = length($val);
    my @f = ();

    for (my $i = 0; $i < $inLen; $i += $len) {
    push(@f,substr($val,$i,$len));
    }

    return join('|',@f);
}

sub Load {
    my $fname = shift;

    my %h; # keyed by offset, value is name
    my($dxl,$sgl) = (5,4);
    my $recLen = 0;
    my($poa,$exempt);

    open(FILE,$fname) || die "Could not open '$fname': $!";
    while (defined(my $l = <FILE>)) {
    next unless ($l =~ /^[a-zA-Z]/);
        #age 000 03
    my($name,$offset,$length) = unpack("a4xa3xa2",$l);

    if ($name =~ /sgl/i) {
        $sgl = $length;
        next;
    }
    if ($name =~ /dxl/i) {
        $dxl = $length;
        next;
    }
    if ($name =~ /poa/i) {
        $poa = $length;
        next;
    }
    if ($name =~ /exmp/i) {
        $exempt = $length;
        next;
    }

    my $key = sprintf("%03d",$offset);
    my $ref = [ $name, $offset, $length ];
    foreach my $el (@$ref) { $el =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g; }
    $h{$key} = $ref;

    }
    close(FILE);

    # figure out end of record: max offset + length
    my ($max) = (reverse (sort keys %h));
    my $ref = $h{$max};
    my $recLen = $$ref[1] + $$ref[2];

    return ($sgl,$dxl,$recLen,%h);
}
# eof

F26 Released

2008-10-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 26 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2008, has just been released.

F26 DRGFilt Control File

2008-10-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

New this year: "poa", "exmp".

age 000 03
sex 003 01
ds   004 02
dxl 000 08
poa 000 07
dx   023 96
sgl 000 07
surg 223 98
exmp 006 01
# these are written out by us
drg 607 03
mdc 610 02
rc   612 02

PHP Shared Object

2008-01-24T08:27:00.000-08:00

QUESTION

Hello,
We recently purchased the PHP shared object from you guys and are having problems getting it running. We are using PHP 5.2.5 on Red Hat Linux 9, and are getting the following error when we try to dynamically link your mhdrg.so library:

Warning: dl(): unable to load dynamic library './mhdrg.so' - mhdrg.so:


undefined symbol: zend_list_find

Any ideas? Let me know if you need more info or if I need to be addressing this question to RTR. Also, if we can't get this to work fairly easily, would we have the option of "trading" this PHP .so for your C callable object?

ANSWER

As I understand it, things are supposed to work like this:

 - you put mhdrg.so in a place in your file system that is both
   - readable by your web server
   - not accessible by the world or the world can steal it

 - you use the dl() primative in PHP to load the extension, like so:

    if (!extension_loaded('mhdrg')) {
        if (!dl('mhdrg.so')) {  // this should be in a protected directory
            exit;
        }
    }


When I deliberately move mhdrg.so on our test system, I get the following error:

Warning: Unable to load dynamic library './mhdrg.so' - ./mhdrg.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory in /home/mnh/public_html/PHP/tryit.php on line 5

So I am guessing that wherever you have put mhdrg.so is not readable by the user your web server runs as. Have you put mhdrg.so in the same document directory as your document? If not, you could trying putting tryit.php and mhdrg.so in the same document directory and confirming that tryit.php works on your systems.

That said, we would be happy to exchange your PHP shared object for a C-callable object if that works better for you.

Working with SAS

2007-11-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

An email we received:

I've presented at a couple of SAS conferences about how well your
product works with SAS.  

A representative of SAS Institute suggested that you might want to
mention that your product can be called from a SAS program and put a
link to my paper on your website.  Here is one:

http://www.scsug.org/SCSUGProceedings/2007/papers/report/Report-Loren.pdf

I'm also happy to serve as a reference if anyone wants to know more
about it.

I really appreciate your help, and have been very happy with your
product.

Common Data Formatting Issues

2007-11-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

QUESTION

As a test I'm regrouping some claims from the Medicare Inpatient SAF (LDS), and about 10% of the time, the results from the grouper do not match CMS's results. (Specifically, for around 1.2M claims, out of about 10M).

Some details:

We're using the newest grouper executable.
Mask version: 21
Claim Through Dates: 2003-Q4 through 2004-Q3

The return codes are almost always 0 but the results often do not match. Sometimes it's b/c we don't have exact ages (everyone under 65 is just listed as 65; we don't have better info than that in the LDS SAF).

The biggest example, for each quarters:

Your grouper's result: 518
CMS-assigned DRG: 527

We have checked & rechecked the input files, control files etc. Everything looks right. The grouper return codes are good, and totaling the PFLAGs and DFLAGs shows no inconsistencies.

ANSWER

We test against the CMS grouper all the time, so this is baffling.

To really see, we would need an example or two (scrubbed of identifiers, preferably). While it is possible that our grouper has a bug in it, we are pleased to report that this is exceedingly rare. Typically, the issues we see are data handling or trivial-seeming formatting issues:

stripping leading zeroes from ICD9 codes
leading whitespace on ICD9 codes
non-contiguous ICD9 codes
discharge disposition coding

But why guess? Send us a few records--10? 100?--and we will see what we see.

Running DRGFilt Under Windows

2007-10-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

How do I run DRGFilt under windows?

ANSWER

You run DRGFilt from a command line, like so:

   - click on the Windows Start menu
   - click on the Run menu item
   - type "cmd" in the box
   - hit enter; you will get a "DOS box" with a prompt; let's say the prompt is ">"
   - type "cd \your-directory-name" and hit enter (replace "your-directory-name" with the name of the directory you are using)
   - type "drgfilt f25 drgmasks.f25 control.fil < input > output" and hit enter (replace "control.fil" with the name of your control file, "input" with the name of your input file and "output" with the name of your output file)

For detailed instructions, please refer to the DRGFilt chapter in the manual.

F25 Released

2007-10-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 25 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2007, has just been released.

Cross-check With US Federal Dataset

2007-09-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

How do I confirm that my DRGGroupers product installation is working properly?

ANSWER

Every year, the US Federal government releases a test dataset against which we validate our implementation. In addition to the various inputs to DRG assignment, this test data set contains the expected DRG which should be the output. We run our implementation against the official mapping and ensure that our results conform.

We are happy to provide a copy of the test dataset along with the appropriate DRGFilt control file, free of charge, to any customer who asks for it.

See our FAQ for details about how we use the test dataset internally.

Reseller's License

2007-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

QUESTION

We are interested in your Reseller License agreement language and also your pricing.

ANSWER

We charge a flat $5,000 fee per product per organization. Sample license language is available on our web site, here under Software Licenses.

F24 Released

2006-10-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 24 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2006, has just been released.

F23 Released

2005-10-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 23 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2005, has just been released.

F22 Released

2004-10-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 22 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2004, has just been released.

Reimbursement

2004-01-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

Note: to price an inpatient visit, ie calculate reimbursement, you would multiply the DRG weight of the DRG our grouper returns by the relevant facility factor. Our grouper products don't do this for you.

F21 Released

2003-10-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 21 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2003, has just been released.

Windows Installers

2003-02-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

We realized recently that we needed to provide standard installers for our Windows product line, once we went beyond Win32 DRGFilt and Win32 CGI-DRG.

Being Open Source-oriented folks, we looked around for an open solution and came up with NSIS, which we think works well for us. We hope that you find our installers easy to use and our un-installers convenient.

F20 Released

2002-10-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 20 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2002, has just been released.

We Love SWIG

2002-09-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

As we look to make our DAE more easily integrated with other people's software, we came across SWIG and it is our new best friend: easy to use, effect and Open Source. We use it for all of our Linux-based embeddable products and we love it.

Now we can provide DAE access for Perl scripts, PHP pages and C programs such as SAS.

F19 Released

2001-10-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 19 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2001, has just been released.

F18 Released

2000-10-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 18 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 2000, has just been released.

F17 Released

1999-10-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 17 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 1999, has just been released.

F16 Released

1998-10-06T11:10:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 16 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 1998, has just been released.

F15 Released

1997-10-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 15 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 1997, has just been released.

F15 DRGFilt Control File

1997-10-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

# this is a DRGFilt control file for the standard HCFA test data set
# there are 3 columns: name, offset and length
# --------------------------- input fields
age 000 03
sex 003 01
ds   004 02
dxl 000 06
dx   006 60
sgl 000 07
surg 066 70
# --------------------------- output fields
drg 195 03
mdc 198 02
rc   200 01

F14 Released

1996-10-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 14 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 1996, has just been released.

F13 Released

1995-10-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 13 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 1995, has just been released.

F12 Released

1994-10-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 12 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 1994, has just been released.

F12 DRGFilt Control File

1994-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the control file we used to run DRGFilt against the official F12 test dataset:

age 000 03
sex 003 01
ds   004 02
dxl 000 06
dx   006 60
sgl 000 07
surg 066 70
drg 195 03
mdc 198 02
rc   200 02
morp 202 01

F11 Released

1993-10-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 11 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 1993, has just been released.

F10 Released

1992-10-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

Our support for version 10 of the US Federal DRG assignment algorithm, active as of October 1st 1992, has just been released.