0.05), but the values of ET and TNF in the CJ group were significantly lower than those in the EBD group (P

Objective To analyze the operation of the diagnosis-related groups ( DRGs) pilots for inpatients in the new rural cooperative medical system in Yulin city of Shaanxi province. Methods The medical records of 33306 inpatients discharged from the 3 pilot hospitals between January and July in 2017 were analyzed, aided by expert discussions, on-site assessment and medical records examinations. Results By the end of July 2017, the DRGs grouping tool had been running stably. The DRGs enrollment rates of discharged inpatients were all up to 99% in the 3 pilot hospitals. The coefficient of variation ( CV) was higher than 1 only in a few DRGs. The average length of stay and the average hospitalization expenses growth rate were both found declined. However, there also exist problems in the pilots, namely incomplete regulations for DRGs, low clinical path coverage rate, hysteretic supervision and assessment, uneven quality of medical records management and so on. Conclusions The pilots operated smoothly as evidenced in their initial success. Yet the following recommendations were raised for the improvements: To strengthen the organization and leadership to improve the DRGs related supporting system in pilot hospitals; To strengthen the promotion and application of clinical paths for standardization of the medical service process;To improve the DRGs assessment program and establish DRGs operation monitoring and tracking analysis system; To strengthen the training of medical record coding staff to improve continuously the quality of medical records.

Objective To evaluate the impacts of DRGs payment reform on patients, medical insurance fund and hospitals, then to steadily promote the payment reform. Methods The reimbursement data of inpatients covered by NCMS yet beyond the single-disease payment were collected from two DRGs pilot hospitals from January 2016 to June 2018. Such means as descriptive statistics, t test and method of interrupted time series analysis were used to compare the changes found in the average out-of-pocket payment, actual reimbursement rate, average per-hospitalization compensation, average length of stay, and average hospitalization expense before and after the DRGs payment reform. Results After the reform, the average out-of-pocket payment and average length of stay began to fall slightly instead of the increasing trend (β3 were -72.79,-0.11, respectively, and P<0.01), the upward trend of average hospitalization expense slowed down ( β3 was -113. 55, and P<0.01), actual reimbursement rate and the average per-hospitalization compensation stayed the original growth trend (β3 were 0.10,-31.15, respectively, and P values were 0.08, 0.09, respectively). Conclusions DRGs encourages the hospitals to curb the average hospitalization expenses, with the growth trend kept at a slower pace. The payment reform does not increase the financial burden of patients, and tends to ease such pressure on funds, but the long-term effect remains to be seen.