Measuring the Cost of Care Using Patient Management Categories. Volume 2. Patient Management Category Relative Cost Weights

摘要

The report describes the relative cost weighting methodology used in the patient classification system known as 'Patient Management Categories' (PMCs). The PMC classification is a method of measuring the relative cost of hospital care for clinically defined patient types. There are about 800 PMCs, which define nearly all patients in general acute-care hospitals. The researchers developed the weights based on the relative cost of effective care for each patient type specified by physicians. The researchers derived a cost weight for each PMC and adjusted the weights to account for the increased use of resources by patients with comorbid disease combinations. This is in contrast to other methods of deriving patient category weights currently in use that rely on hospital charges or costs for services actually provided to particular patients.