Risk-adjusted grouping methodologies. Applied to classifying patient health data.

Why grouping and classification solutions?

Healthcare providers generate volumes of patient information that result in coded medical records. This coded data helps providers, regulators, payers and consumers understand the value of patient care, giving insight into patient mix, expected reimbursement and quality outcomes.

Why 3M for my grouping and classification needs?

3M has 30+ years of experience developing classification, grouping, edits, and reimbursement calculation systems for inpatient, outpatient, and professional settings. Whether you or your clients want to process claims for reimbursement or reporting, edit patient records in real-time, or analyze patient data, 3M is the source for innovative, cost-effective and up-to-date solutions.

Grouping and classification solutions

Our products and services fit a number of needs, including:

Grouping software for inpatient and ambulatory care

3M’s inpatient and ambulatory care classification and grouping methodologies help you analyze coded data and claims, resulting in insights that help you keep up with regulatory changes and understand the true quality of patient care. Options include:

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- 3M inpatient grouping, editing and reimbursement content and 3M outpatient grouping, editing and reimbursement content help you accurately assign DRG codes, monitor the accuracy of your claims and calculate expected reimbursements.
- 3M™ All Patient Refined DRG (APR DRG) Software adjusts data for severity of illness and risk of mortality for any patient population in acute care settings.
- 3M™ Enhanced Ambulatory Patient Grouping (EAPG) System help you develop an effective and comprehensive outpatient prospective payment system that includes hospitals, freestanding ambulatory surgery centers, renal dialysis centers and other diverse care settings.
- 3M™ Potentially Preventable Readmissions (PPR) Grouping Software determines whether a readmission is clinically related to a prior admission, identifying readmissions that potentially could have been prevented with better discharge planning, care coordination and follow up.
- 3M™ Potentially Preventable Complications (PPC) Grouping Software reviews over 60 different types of complications that occur during a hospital stay, providing insight into incentives and interventions that can help improve patient safety.

Grouping software for longitudinal care

In addition to quantifying resources used during a specific admission or patient visit, our suite of grouping software can be applied to all inpatient and ambulatory encounters over time. The risk-adjusted measures represent patient health risk, episodes of care, community-based care, and ambulatory-care sensitive conditions, providing a longitudinal perspective that supports value-based care programs. Options include:

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- 3M™ Clinical Risk Grouping Software uses diagnosis and procedure codes, pharmaceutical data and functional/mental health status to assign individuals to severity-adjusted homogeneous groups, helping you anticipate the amount and type of health care they will use in the future.
- 3M™ Patient-focused Episodes Software takes a patient-centric approach to defining episodes of care by accounting for multiple, comorbid conditions, creating a uniform clinical language that can help you identify at-risk patients, costs and inefficiencies.
- 3M solutions for potentially preventable events (PPEs) offers one software suite to manage the full spectrum of PPEs: hospital admissions, readmissions, ED visits, hospital-acquired complications and ancillary services (such as laboratory tests and imaging).

Grouper applications

Our grouper software platforms process data sets and produce grouped data outputs from a single application for any grouping scheme you need, such as 3M APR DRGs, Ambulatory Payment Classifications (APCs) or 3M CRGs. Options include:

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- 3M™ Core Grouping Software is a PC-based application you can install and run. The output can be exported into a file format or uploaded directly through interfaces to your billing or claims processing systems or into a data warehouse.
- 3M™ Grouper Plus Content Services uses cloud technology to provide up-to-date, secure access to grouping content within other vendor workflow applications.

News and insights from the 3M Clinical and Economic Research team

Grouping and classification resources

Learn more about the ins and outs of our grouping and classification methodologies and applications.

eGuide: Real-time content in the cloud

Read all about how to access 3M’s content and methodologies.
Download the eGuide (PDF, 268.42 KB)
eGuide: Bundling payment for episodes of care

Understand how to balance risk, define episodes and bundle payment.
Download the eGuide (PDF, 4.77 MB)
White paper: 3M CRGs Measuring risk, managing care

See how 3M CRGs bridge the clinical and financial aspects of care.
Download the white paper (PDF, 261.15 KB)
Video: 3M PPRs provide a focused look at readmissions

Allina Health talks about care transitions and reduced readmissions.
Watch the video
eGuide: Population health and potentially preventable events

Learn how to use PPEs to evaluate population health programs.
Download the eGuide (PDF, 501.06 KB)
eGuide: The standard for yesterday, today and tomorrow: 3M APR DRGs

See why 3M APR DRGs are so popular among federal and state agencies.
Download the eGuide (PDF, 265 KB)
eGuide: 3M™ Core Grouping Software

Here’s how to enhance your EHR’s revenue cycle and analytics workflow.
Download the eGuide (PDF, 301 KB)

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Featured Solutions

3M™ Grouper Plus Content Services

3M Grouper Plus Content Services (GPCS) provides reliable, secure processing of patient claims and other coded data in the cloud. The web-based delivery system hosts a selection of classification and reimbursement content users need to group, edit and calculate reimbursement of claims.
3M™ Clinical Risk Grouping Software

3M Clinical Risk Groups (CRGs) measure illness and resource utilization of all patients, including children, low income or elderly individuals, commercial beneficiaries, and those with disabilities using inpatient, ambulatory, and pharmacy data.
3M Solutions for Potentially Preventable Events

3M "preventables" software identifies avoidable and unnecessary care. The focus on "potentially preventable" events gives organizations actionable information to make improvements where they can have the greatest impact.
3M™ Enhanced Ambulatory Patient Grouping (EAPG) System

The 3M EAPG System classifies outpatient care into patient groups and categories based by key procedures and primary diagnosis code. It consolidates multiple single procedures into a bundle and packages ancillary services together with the significant procedure, where appropriate.