Fiscal implications of a childhood disorder DRG.

There is considerable interest in the development of a viable prospective payment system for psychiatry. Under the currently proposed system, all child/adolescent psychiatric admissions would be assigned to a single DRG. An alternative set of three DRGs, based on a service variable, were previously identified. Assuming no decrease in the per diem cost for extended lengths of stay, the eight public hospitals in the sample would be compensated at 54% of cost using the single-DRG model and at 83% of cost using the three-DRG model.