Question

What is the significance of a hospital's Case Mix Index (CMI) ?

Answer 1

Case Mix Index (CMI) is a relative value assigned to a diagnosis-related group (DRG/MSDRG) of patients in a medical care environment. The CMI value is used in determining the allocation of resources to care for and/or treat the patients in the group.

The CMI of a hospital reflects the diversity, clinical complexity and the needs for resources in the population of all the patients in the hospital.
* The CMI value of a hospital can be used to adjust the average cost per patient (or per day) for a given hospital relative to the adjusted average cost for other hospitals by
dividing the average cost per patient (or day) by the hospital's calculated CMI.
* The adjusted average cost per patient would reflect the charges reported for the types of cases treated in that year.
* If a hospital has a CMI greater than 1.00, their adjusted cost per patient or per day will be lower and conversely if a hospital has a CMI less than 1.00, their adjusted cost will be higher.