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Biomedical subjects

G M Carter

Publications and source records attributed to G M Carter.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

A longitudinal comparison of charge-based weights with cost-based weights.

The diagnosis-related group weights that determine prices for Medicare hospital stays are recalibrated annually using charge data. Using data from fiscal years 1985 through 1987, the authors show that differences between these charge-based weights and cost-based weights are increasing only slightly. Charge-based weights are available in a more timely manner and, based on temporal changes in the weights, we show that this is an important consideration. Charge-based weights provide higher payments than cost-based weights to hospitals with higher case-mix indexes, but have little effect on hospitals with low cost-to-charge ratios, high capital costs, or high teaching costs.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed1992

Assessing the FY 1989 change in Medicare PPS outlier policy.

In fiscal year (FY) 1989, Medicare changed its rules for paying for extremely long or expensive hospital stays called "outliers." We compared outlier payments in FYs 1989 and 1988, after adjusting for other simultaneous policy changes. We found that the new policy succeeded in targeting more outlier payments to the most expensive cases and to the hospitals suffering larger prospective payment system (PPS) losses and in reducing hospital financial risk. Using time-series analyses, we show that the policy change had no measurable effect on the timing of discharges or on the concentration of expensive cases in urban government-owned hospitals.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1992

How recalibration method, pricing, and coding affect DRG weights.

We compared diagnosis-related group (DRG) weights calculated using the hospital-specific relative-value (HSRV) methodology with those calculated using the standard methodology for each year from 1985 through 1989 and analyzed differences between the two methods in detail for 1989. We provide evidence suggesting that classification error and subsidies of higher weighted cases by lower weighted cases caused compression in the weights used for payment as late as the fifth year of the prospective payment system. However, later weights calculated by the standard method are not compressed because a statistical correlation between high markups and high case-mix indexes offsets the cross-subsidization. HSRV weights from the same files are compressed because this methodology is more sensitive to cross-subsidies. However, both sets of weights produce equally good estimates of hospital-level costs net of those expenses that are paid by outlier payments. The greater compression of the HSRV weights is counterbalanced by the fact that more high-weight cases qualify as outliers.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed1990

How much change in the case mix index is DRG creep?

We re-abstracted a nationally representative sample of 7,887 Medicare charts to determine how much of the change in Medicare's Case Mix Index between 1986 and 1987 was true change in the complexity of cases and how much was upcoding or 'DRG creep'. About two-thirds of the change is true. Most of the remaining third is attributable to a general change in the completeness of coding; some is attributable to changes in the Grouper program. Thus, most of the additional $1 billion paid to hospitals because of the Case Mix Index change appears justified by the additional complexity of patients hospitalized.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed1988

Insurance aspects of DRG outlier payments.

As part of the prospective payment system, the government pays 'outlier' payments for especially long or expensive cases. These payments can be viewed as insurance for the hospital against excessive losses. They mitigate problems of access and underprovision of care for the sickest patients, and provide additional payments to the hospitals that take care of them, thereby making payments to hospitals more equitable. This paper characterizes the outlier payment formulae that minimize risk for hospitals under any fixed constraints on the sum of outlier payments and minimum hospital coinsurance rate. We then simulate per-case payments for a policy that did not include any outlier payments, the current outlier policy, and several other policies that minimize risk subject to different coinsurance constraints. The current outlier policy achieves each of its goals to at least some extent, but more insurance could be provided without lessening attainment of the other goals. We also discuss some problems with the implementation of the current policy, such as its reliance on day outliers.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1986

Medicare case-mix index increase.

Medicare paid hospitals a higher amount per admission in 1984 than had been planned because the case-mix index (CMI), which reflects the proportion of patients in high-weighted DRG's versus low-weighted ones, increased more than had been projected. This study estimated the degree to which the increase in the CMI from 1981 reflected medical practice changes, the aging of the Medicare inpatient population, changes in coding practices of physicians and hospitals, and changes in the way that the Health Care Financing Administration collects the data on case-mix. All of the above, except for aging, contributed to the increase in the CMI.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed1980

Oxygen consumption for lower extremity exercises in normal subjects and burned patients.

The purpose of this study was to compare the oxygen requirements for normal subjects and burned patients during rest and while performing two separate exercises of the quadriceps femoris muscles. The oxygen consumption of 10 normal subjects and 10 burned patients while at rest and while performing each exercise was measured. The resting and exercising oxygen-consumption levels for burned patients were significantly greater (p < .01) than for normal subjects. However, the mean difference in increased oxygen consumption during two exercises for normal subjects and for burned patients was not significant (p > .05). The elevated resting and exercising oxygen-consumption levels in burned patients were considered to be related to the hypermetabolic response characteristic of thermally injured patients.

Adolescent↗