The Austrian DRG-system: Insights from the first 2 decades

Effects of a Diagnosis-Related Group Payment Reform on Length and Costs of Hospitalization in Sichuan, China: A Synthetic Control Study

“… 34 Similarly, the Austrian DRG system reduced the average length of stay (ALOS) from 8.3 days in 1997 to 6.8 days in 2007. 35 Conversely, the introduction of DRG reforms in Germany led to a reduction in the average hospitalization days per case for hand surgery patients, 36 but it also increased the average cost of hospitalization per day.…”

“…38 For instance, Luo et al reported an increase in 30-day readmission rates following DRG implementation in Panzhihua City, especially among older adults and surgical patients. 25 The experiences of France and Switzerland underscore the importance of balancing efficiency improvements with the quality of care when implementing DRG reforms for chronic health conditions 35,36 . Additionally, in Chinese pilot cities, where there is a tendency for high coding of the lowest codes, it is crucial to focus on fine-tuning disease diagnoses and differentiating disease examination and treatment during DRG implementation.…”

It probably worked: a Bayesian approach to evaluating the introduction of activity-based hospital payment in Israel

“…In Poland, the introduction of DRGs also led to service distortion [ 14 ]. In Austria, LoS decreased during the first 10 years (1997–2007) and patient turnover increased in the first 20 years, but decreased again after creation of new outpatient care codes [ 15 ]. Despite that the local variants of DRGs in these three countries groups patients primarily based on the main procedure [ 17 ], these mixed effects point to the importance of examining the impact of payment reform where and how it occurs.…”