DRG do-over: the need for a service-line strategy.

Hospitals should establish a service-line-focused strategic approach in preparation for the reimbursement changes resulting from CMS's reconfiguration of DRGs. Surgical areas that hospitals have relied upon as primary revenue generators, particularly cardiology, may lose financial strength after the new IPPS is implemented. Hospitals may benefit from increasing their strategic focus on other service lines-particularly medical diagnostic services-that have the potential to contribute more to the bottom line than they have in the past.