Healthcare Resource Groups (HRG4)
HRG4 was introduced as the currency of costing in 2006 and for payment in 2009.
What's new in HRG4?
HRG4 is a major revision that increases the number of groupings from 650 to over 1,400. It delivers:
- a portfolio of new and updated HRG groupings that accurately record patient treatment to reflect current practice and anticipated trends in healthcare
- additional specialty and service coverage, including:
- diagnostic imaging
- chemotherapy
- radiotherapy
- specialist palliative care
- rehabilitation
- critical care
- setting independence to accurately reflect care given, regardless of where it is given
- refinement of complexity and complication splits to better reflect variations in severity
- 'unbundling' of high cost elements of care that can be reimbursed as additions to base HRGs
- spell-based HRGs that cover the whole stay from admission to discharge and enable fairer reimbursement
What are the benefits of HRG4?
- HRG4 extends coverage to recognise a wider group of clinical professions and services delivering essential care, such as radiotherapy
- it supports fairer and equitable reimbursement by differentiating more effectively between routine and complex cases
- unbundling of high cost elements improves the performance of HRGs so that they can better represent activity and costs by:
- identifying specialist services to ensure funding for priority areas
- supporting service redesign (e.g. locally commissioned rehabilitation)
- supporting patient choice by introducing increased flexibility to allow separate elements of the care pathway to be delivered by different providers.
- unbundling helps to make HRGs 'setting independent' so that healthcare can be provided and funded across a variety of settings. This supports the NHS Plan to modernise service by ensuring that a uniform payment will be made for treatment given, regardless of setting. This will enable choice for PCT commissioners and, by extension, the patient
- HRG4 enables NHS organisations to meet specific DH policies such as reform of financial flows and ensure that the PbR policy is based on up-to-date data
- the improvement in the match of classification and casemix activity to clinical practice helps managers to plan, commission, budget and resource care services.
How do I use HRG4?
The main deliverable of the service is the classification HRGs. You can take advantage of the benefits of HRGs by using our products. These include:
- local grouper applications
- local grouper documentation
- analysis products.