DOCUMENTATION IN MS-DRGS PAYMENT SYSTEM
A number of changes have been introduced in the medical services such as Medicaid and Medicare services. There is no doubt that these changes tends to bring social changes in the society. In analysis, when we talk about effects or impact of these technological inventions in payment systems, we always talk of its positive and negative effects in the society. One of the changes that has affected the payment system in the Medicare services results from the introduction of MS-DRGs payment system. These changes will oversee the distribution of hospital charges to all inpatient cases which get reported in any given hospital. Various factor and issues have been associated with this change in payment system in the hospitals. For instance, the amount to be distribution for each hospital as well as the documentation issues may vary from one hospital to another depending on the procedures and cases of inpatients (Mayes, 2007).
The issue of documentation has accrued various contentious concerning this new payments system introduced by center for Medicare and Medicaid services. MS-DRGs depend entirely on the availed document for inpatient cases. Consequently, if any document is missing from the hospital premises, it means low figure will be obtained as raw data irrespective of higher value of service offered. The information released from these partially processed data will be misleading since it based on unbalanced grounds. Consequently, the affected product line will portray an over-resourcing trend characterized by poor level of output. Such incidences may affect the medical service being provided in that product line. Another effect of wrong information is on security, where the information can fall in wrong hands compromising the performance and productivity of health care institutions. Instances of minimal error, would lead to improper billing, which in the end could lead to loss of funds thus bringing the quality of health care down.
The health care provision in such situation can be affected negatively due to reduced resource allocation for that department by the administration. For instance, the amount allocated per inpatient may get reduced to levels which cannot allow effective administration of medical services. MS-DRGs are a payment system which can only work effectively if the encoding process is based on facts and correct data. Any misrepresentation will lead to consequential adverse results (Mitchell, 2007).
References
Mayes, R. (2007). "The Origins, Development, and Passage of Medicare's Revolutionary
Prospective Payment System". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 62
(1): pp. 21–55.
Mitchell., K.C. (2007). Understanding the financial impact of MS-DRGs. J of medicare and
Medicaid. 1(1):1-4
