Preparing for the inpatient rehabilitation PPS.

To assess the financial impact of the inpatient rehabilitation prospective payment system (PPS) on its future revenues, the MetroHealth Center for Rehabilitation (MHCR), Cleveland, Ohio, undertook a three-phase process using data from calendar year 2000 to estimate its potential profit or loss for each case-mix group (CMG) identified in the final rule. This process entailed developing a database to facilitate the combination and comparison of patient-charge and clinical data by CMG, using the combined data to estimate costs by cost center, and using payment information included in the final rule to estimate revenues by CMG. Following the assessment, the MHCR decided to expand the database to assist clinicians in making informed decisions in their patient-assessment and care-delivery processes that would account for cost and revenue considerations under the PPS.