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3M™ All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (3M APR DRG)

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Suitable for all populations

Suitable for all populations

3M APR DRGs are the only inpatient classification methodology that is suitable for all patient populations, including sick and healthy newborns, pediatrics and obstetrics. These populations represent 41 percent of privately insured stays and 52 percent of Medicaid stays, but just 0.3 percent of Medicare stays. The Medicare program has specifically advised other payers not to use Medicare DRGs as they were designed specifically for the Medicare recipients and are not inclusive for these populations.

Clinically meaningful

Clinically meaningful

3M APR DRGs define "the product of a hospital." Each of the 332 base 3M APR DRGs classifies patients based on clinical similarities and their use of hospital resources. Further, each base 3M APR DRG is divided into four levels of severity of illness, for a total of 1,330 3M APR DRGs (including 2 error DRGs). This clear and understandable structure enables insight and communication with clinicians.

Sophisticated severity measurement

Sophisticated severity measurement

The logic to assign a patient to one of four severity levels depends on the number, nature and interaction of complications and comorbidities (CCs) for that base 3M APR DRG specifically. By contrast, in the Medicare DRG methodology, each base DRG has at most three severity levels, which are assigned based on the simple presence of a CC or a major CC. As a result, the 3M APR DRGs are a more accurate measurement of severity even for cardiac, respiratory and other patient types often covered by Medicare.

Insight into utilization, cost and quality

Insight into utilization, cost and quality

3M APR DRGs are closely integrated with other Solventum methodologies used to measure hospital performance in terms of potentially preventable complications, potentially preventable readmissions and mortality. These quality measures, as well as efficiency measures such as cost per stay, are risk adjusted using 3M APR DRGs to enable impartial comparisons across hospitals and other inpatient populations. 3M APR DRGs are also used to define inpatient stays in measuring population health (i.e., potentially preventable admissions) and as anchors in defining episodes of care.

APR DRG

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