Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Announces New Information Tracking System

align="center">Weinstock, insurance broker at “CMS uses
You’ve likely heard the term dashboard as itDRG grouping, pricing and editing software to calculate
relates to your car. However, it is also a term that isthe DRG assignment and subsequently the
used in business to describe a web-based technologyreimbursement for every Medicare claim.”
page which provides a real-time analysis of a businessBy matching each DRG with an assigned payment
operation. In the same way that your car dashboardweight, Medicare beneficiaries as well as other
displays how your vehicle is performing, the dashboardAmericans will have the ability to compare costs, to
of a business shows how it is performing.see where their taxpayer dollars are being spent and
Well, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Servicesto understand what types of results are being
(CMS) has its own dashboard now and it allows themproduced. In addition, this information can be used by
to track how much is spent on Medicare patients ingovernment and industry to assess health care
hospitals. The expectation is that more data willpolicies, improve the management of health care and
eventually be added, but for now this new interactiveidentify areas for change
CMS dashboard is geared toward helping the publicThe dashboard provides information on the top 25
visualize and analyze Medicare spending.DRGs as well as the top 10 hospitals for each of
What the New CMS Dashboard Offers Medicarethose DRGs. The information contained in the
Beneficiariesdashboard is based solely on Medicare beneficiaries in
In response to a White House Open Governmentthe Original Medicare program, not on Medicare
Directive (transparency) this new dashboard includes aAdvantage participants.
limited set of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) andCMS Dashboard Provides Comprehensive Data to
hospitals paid under the Inpatient Prospective PaymentImprove Decision-making
System (IPPS).“The ultimate hope is to deliver better health
IPPS is the system for reimbursing hospitals forcare across the country,” says Weinstock.
inpatient health care services at a predetermined rateAnd toward that end the new CMS dashboard
for treatment of specific illnesses. When a hospitalactually shortcuts the process of compiling the data
sends Medicare a bill, the diagnosis and treatmentfrom over 40 million Medicare hospital admissions
information assign the admission to a DRG. The DRGbeginning as far back as January 2006. The data will
and other adjustments based on hospitalcontinue to be updated monthly.
characteristics and the patient’s stayThe firm that developed the CMS dashboard,
determine how much Medicare pays.MicroStrategy, is a leading worldwide provider of
DRG is a patient classification system that relatesbusiness intelligence (BI) software. The company
types of acute care inpatients treated to thesuggests that their dashboards are well-suited for the
resources they consume. “The system looksCMS because they are able to display large volumes
at those cases that are clinically similar and thatof information that provide Medicare beneficiaries with
consume similar resources,” says Alanthe ability to see how their tax dollars are spent.