Parallel planning: a key to successful DRG phase-in management.

Medicare's three-year phase-in for its prospective reimbursement DRG system creates a special problem for radiology and hospital managers trying to manage under contradictory methodologies. One innovative way of coping with that problem is the development of a parallel planning process--one plan for cost-based services and another for DRG services. Such an approach provides radiology administrators with a set of familiar managerial tools to enter into the unknown territory of DRGs.