Objective: Within the German diagnosis related groups (G-DRG) system, the accurate coding of the co-morbidity "failed or difficult intubation (T88.4)" may be relevant with respect to reimbursement. In this study, the impact of this typical anesthesia co-morbidity on revenues of an university hospital was investigated.
Methods: The computerized records of 21,204 anesthesia procedures from the year 2005 were scanned for failed or difficult intubations. The results were checked for accordance with the coding recommendation of the Medical Service of the Health Insurance Funds (MDK) with respect to the co-morbidity T88.4. For all valid cases, the DRG, the diagnosis code and the co-morbidity codes were retrieved from the hospital information system. Subsequently all cases were regrouped with the GetDRG grouper (Fa. GEOS), taking the co-morbidity T88.4 in account.
Results: Out of the 21,204 patients, 12,261 were intubated for general anesthesia. A failed or difficult intubation according to the definition of the expert group of social medicine was documented in 276 anesthesia cases (2.3%). In 31 cases the coding of the co-morbidity T88.4 led to an increase in revenue by grouping the case in a different DRG. Using the base rate of the year 2005 (EUR 3,379.66), the surplus in basic points of 17.093 resulted in an additional reimbursement of EUR 57,768.53.
Conclusion: With this study it was shown that the consequent coding of the co-morbidity T88.4 during anesthesia can lead to increased reimbursement. A prerequisite is the accurate documentation and coding by the attending anesthetist.