classification of hospital patients according to principal and secondary diagnoses, age and sex, the presence of co-morbidities and complications and the procedures performed, which is used by insurance carriers to set reimbursement scales based on the premise that treatment of similar medical diagnoses generates similar costs

hospital payment mechanism based on an exhaustive patient case classification system (i.e. the system of diagnosis-related groupings1) and a payment formula specific to each group, without regard to the actual cost of care or duration of hospitalisation for any individual case1 DRG [ IATE:1294284 ]