DRG - Casemix funding in health care

-Automatic translation

In 2021, the Ministry of Health decided to entrust Iceland Health (Sjúkratryggingar) to make contracts with Landspítali and Sjúkrahúsið á Akureyri regarding casemix funding for the hospitals. The contracts were signed in the autumn of 2021 and cover part of the clinical activities of hospitals. Payment has been made in accordance with the contracts since the beginning of 2023.

With this, casemix funding is implemented using the so-called DRG classification system. DRG stands for Diagnosis Related Groups.

The implementation is in accordance with the objectives of Health Strategy to 2030 (Icelandic), as efficient service procurement is one of seven essential tasks. The preparation for implementation and plans are discussed in more detail in the Ministry of Health's report from 2020 (Icelandic).

In 2021, the Directorate of Health was tasked with grouping hospital services into DRG groups using data from the Hospital Discharge Register. The register is one of the Directorate of Health's health registers and is maintained by Article 8 of the Medical Director of Health and Public Health Act. Data in the Hospital Discharge Register is received daily from hospitals and goes back to 1999.

The Directorate of Health sends the results of the DRG grouping to Iceland Health once a month. Iceland Health is responsible for paying the institutions in accordance with the results of the grouping.