title: Implementing DRGs in Slovenia: why the Australian variant was selected.
abstract: Slovenia is embarking on an ambitious health sector reform program, a small part of which involves implementing the categorization of acute inpatients by DRG for payment purposes. I summarise the leading DRG variants, and describe the process of selecting one of them. I argue that the Slovenian decision to use the Australian DRG variant as a starting point was sensible in terms of cost, speed of implementation, and usefulness of the resultant information. More time and effort could have been spent on the appraisal process, but I suspect it would not have led to a different outcome.
authors.affiliation: University of New South Wales.
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hindle
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics*; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000145:classification*; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D017524:Slovenia