CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) created the MS-DRG system as a way to classify each Medicare patient's hospital stay into a severity group. These severity groups help to determine how much a hospital is paid for treating the patient based on the expected cost and complexity of the treatment.
Each year, CMS updates the MS-DRGs to reflect current trends in treatment and to reflect any changes in how patients are being treated. Use the MS-DRG Versions menu above to choose the year you would like to see.
MS-DRGs are divided into Major Diagnostic Categories (MDCs) that represent each area of treatment. The order of MDCs reflects their relative importance. If a patient receives treatment in multiple MDCs, the first one listed below takes precedence. Pre-MDC contains treatments that are considered so complex that they take priority over any specific area of treatment.
| Appendix A - List of MS-DRGs |