[DPC and its implications for clinical practice in cancer treatment]

In April 2003, the Japanese government introduced a casemix classification based reimbursement methodology into acute inpatient care services by developing a new, national patient grouping, called Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC). The result, so far, has been successful, but analysis of data gathered using DPC revealed; 1) large deficit accumulating in short-term chemotherapy and examination admissions, 2) great variation in practice patterns within academic medical centers adopting the new system. Such phenomenon may lead to rapid shift of related services to outpatient setting, initiate debate over standardization of practice in cancer treatment. Efforts are needed to overcome these issues before the next reform planned in 2006.