DRGFilt10 New Control File Format

The version of DRGFilt which supports ICD10-based DRG assignment is called DRGFilt10. Since we are overhauling our product line, we decided to knock a very long-standing item off the list: the DRGFilt control file format.

The control file tells DRGFilt how to parse the incoming data records to pick out the data elements needed to assign a DRG:

1. patient age
2. patient sex
3. patient discharge status
4. list of diagnoses
5. list of procedures

The control file also tells DRGFilt where to put its output:

1. Grouper Return Code (GRC) -- what, if anything, went wrong
2. Major Diagnostic Category (MDC)
3. Diagnosis Related Group (DRG)

The original control file format was based on the old IBM punch cards (!) so it was definitely time to ditch the 1960s. For our first upgrade, we decided to move on up to the 1990s by supporting a .INI-like format.

Our first step along the moderization path is Specifically, this is the control file we are using to validate the new DRGFilt against the CMS test data set:

; control file for new DRG filt
[drgfilt]
format = fixed
; fixed-width input variables: name = length@offset
age =    3@0
sex = 1@3
ds =  2@4
dxl=8        ; dx length does not require an offset
poa= 7
dx = 200@23
sgl=7@0     ; pr length, offset is optional & ignored
surg= 175@223
exmp = 1@6
; -----
; these are already present from the CMS grouper:
; you could overwrite the incomin values if you wanted to
; drg = 3@603
; mdc = 2@600
; rc = 2@598
; -----

; these are written out by DRGFilt
rc  = 2@1760
mdc = 2@1762
drg = 3@1764

; eof


We hope to roll out the long-awaited CSV support very soon.