Autopsy diagnoses can increase DRG reimbursement

To determine how missed clinical diagnoses revealed at autopsy might affect third-party payment through DRGs, the authors performed a retrospective comparison of clinical and pathologic diagnoses in 100 consecutive cases that came to autopsy. In 13 of these cases, the autopsy findings resulted in a change in DRG assignment, which could have produced an additional $14,235 for the hospital.