Das Gesundheitswesen
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Das Gesundheitswesen · May 2014
[Do German DRGs appropriately explain the resource consumption of hospitals? An empirical patient-level cost-data analysis across ten episodes of care].
The revenues of German hospitals are mainly determined by DRG-based payments. Therefore DRGs should appropriately explain the resource consumption of hospitals in order to avoid unintended consequences. So far little is known about the ability of German DRGs to adequately reflect the cost of a hospital stay. ⋯ The analysis shows that the German DRG system requires further research. However, to date this is limited by poor data availability. Compared to other DRG systems the German system shows a weak performance. The incorporation of some of the used variables as well as an increasing international knowledge transfer might help to further improve the German DRG system.