Surviving DRG's: New Jersey's social work experience with prospective payments

This is a report of a study which examined the impact of New Jersey's four-year experience with all-payer DRG's upon 82 hospital social work departments as these were reported by their directors. Although DRG's have made discharge planning, and thus social work, central to hospitals' financial health, departments have faced increased caseloads and some refocus of staff deployment, not always with compensatory increases in staff. Strategies to survive the cost-containment policies and other implications are noted.