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rob! commented on Browse the Medicare Hospital Charges and Payment Data.

If anyone's wondering, the alphabet soup at the end of most of the diagnoses in Jonathan's app is the "severity-adjusted diagnosis-related group [DRG]" coding that Medicare uses to reimburse hospitals for patient care.

First adopted in 1982, DRGs were a major step away from pure cost-based reimbursement and thus an important part of containing health-care cost increases (though prices have obviously continued to escalate rapidly over the last 30 years).

The "severity-adjusted" refinement is a way of reducing the total number of codes required to be used when seeking reimbursement from Medicare. "Cc" means the base diagnosis PLUS common co-morbidities and complications, while "Mcc" means major co-morbidities and complications. "W" and "W/O" mean with or without, obviously.

Now if we could just get to where ALL physicians and hospitals are paid based on OUTCOMES, rather than diagnoses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnosis-r…

http://www.irpsys.com/articles%5Cszh_med…

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8:58 PM yesterday

rob! commented on Browse the Medicare Hospital Charges and Payment Data.

Thanks, Dr. Golob. I downloaded the spreadsheet the day it was released, and found that it completely bogged down my zippy little laptop. Your site is actually usable. (Now why couldn't CMS have done that? It's almost as thought the administration doesn't give a rip whether Obamacare lives or dies.)

I hope you have time to comment on some of the issues this brings up, Jonathan.

May 15

rob! commented on R.I.P. Weird House/Business (?) Thing Next to Joko's Indonesian Kitchen.

'Ja borrow some of Mudede's lens butter, Grant?

May 15

rob! commented on SL Letters of the Day: Just Say No to DSGs.

I'm sorry, but straight/bi doods are pretty easy for chicks to get into bed. You don't need to involve my sexuality, straight girls.

Sgt. Doom, is that you?!

May 15

rob! commented on Every Damn SIFF Movie in One Damn Place.

First link still erroneous. Last link correct. Is there a strictly mobile version? I can't find it by futzing the URL

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-s…