Journal List > J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc > v.56(1) > 1017840

Joe, Seok, Jeong, Lee, Kim, Choi, Won, and Lee: The Significance and Limitations of Korean Diagnosis-Related Groups in Psychiatric Inpatients' Hospital Charges

Abstract

Objectives

This study was conducted to investigate whether the charges associated with Korean Diagnosis-Related Groups for mental health inpatients adequately reflect the degree of medical resource consumption for inpatient treatment in the psychiatric ward.

Methods

This study was conducted with psychiatric inpatients data for 2014 from the National Health Insurance claim database. The main diagnoses required for admission, classification of the hospitals, and main treatment services were analyzed by examining descriptive statistics. Homogeneities of the major diagnostic criteria were assessed by calculating coefficient variances. Explanation power was determined by R2 values.

Results

The most frequent disorders for psychiatric inpatient treatment were alcohol-use disorder, depressive episodes, bipolar affective disorder, and dementia in Alzheimer's disease. Hospitalization and psychotherapy fees were the main medical expenses. Regardless of the homogeneity of the disease group, duration of hospital stay was the factor that most influenced medical expenses. In the psychiatric area, explanation power of Korean Diagnosis-Related Groups was 16.52% (p<0.05), which was significantly lower than that for other major diagnostic area.

Conclusion

Most psychiatric illnesses are chronic, and the density of services can vary depending on illness severity or associated complications. The current Korean Diagnosis-Related Groups criteria did not adequately represent the amount of in-hospital medical expenditures. A novel Korean classification system that reflects the expenditures of medical resources in psychiatric hospitals should be developed in order to provide appropriate reimbursements.

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Trimmed R2 of Major Diagnostic Criteria. Unit of R2; % (p<0.05).

jkna-56-10-g001
Table 1

Lists of Major Diagnostic Criteria (MDC)-19 and -20 in Korean Diagnostic-Related Groups version 4.0

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ADRG: Adjacent Diagnosis-Related Groups

Table 2

The comparison of hospital charges in admission and mean days-of-stay to the types of hospital

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*: Unit of hospital charges=1000 won

Table 3

The comparison of hospital charges in admission in most frequent five disorders to the types of hospital

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*: Unit of hospital charges=1000 won, : Daily hospital charges=standardized total hospital charges/days-of-stay

Table 4

The comparison of the frequencies and hospital charges in groups of performances in most frequent five psychiatric disorders

jkna-56-10-i004

*: Unit of hospital charges=1000 won

Table 5

The homogeneity of hospital charges by Adjacent Diagnostic-Related Groups (ADRG) in Major Diagnostic Criteria-19 and -20

jkna-56-10-i005

*: Unit of hospital charges=1000 won

Notes

Conflicts of Interest The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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