EDEN PRAIRIE, MN – Ingenix, a healthcare IT and consulting company, has released its fifth annual report on the "Top 200 Coding Hospitals in the U.S." The report ranks hospitals according to the completeness and accuracy of their medical coding practices used to bill Medicare for inpatient medical services.

This year's report identifies hospitals that have adapted best to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' updated policies, including a new Medicare payment methodology, reduced payment for hospital-acquired conditions and increased pressure for correct coding via its Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) program.

"Our data shows that these hospitals are avoiding some of the pitfalls associated with severity-adjusted grouping - the same pitfalls that RAC auditors are looking for," said Warren Guillett, Ingenix's senior vice president for health systems optimization.

Consultants from the Ingenix Health Information Management consulting division reviewed more than 50 indicators for coding excellence in the Diagnostic Related Group and ICD-9-CM systems. According to Ingenix, 13 of the metrics reviewed exhibited a high correlation with coding accuracy.

Ingenix officials established the definitive metrics by comparing the frequency with which these scenarios occurred among a hospital's cases. For example, they used cases with DRG 124 (Circulatory Disorders except AMI with Cardiac Catheterization and Complex Diagnosis) and a diagnosis code of 411.1 (Intermediate Coronary Syndrome) as a percent of the total number of DRG 124 claims as one of the measures.