BACKGROUND :

This is the 3rd technical meeting of the South East Asia regional experts’ network on DRG development. Network participants include officials from health insurance agencies and departments of health of Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Previous meetings were held in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City, October 2018) and the Philippines (Manila, May 2019). The objective of the network is to advance knowledge in DRG design, share implementation experiences, and explore opportunities for collaboration development among experts in DRG development from these countries. The specific focus of this 3rd meeting will be on the development and maintenance of DRG grouping algorithms, together with the coding and information systems needed to support them. In addition to the technical issues associated with coding and information systems, the possibility of collaboration between the five countries to adopt and maintain a common grouping algorithm will be discussed. There is already global precedent for cross-country collaboration on a common grouping algorithm in the form of the Nord-DRG model which is currently used by the Baltic countries. There are also opportunities for collaboration in maintaining a common procedure code system which also allows for adding in new technologies over time and standardizes these codes across SEA countries. The workshop will combine presentations on technical aspects of patient and procedure classification systems and their implementation (training, audits, etc.), along with structured opportunities for sharing what is going on in each country in this area and plans to move forward. It will also provide an opportunity to get feedback from DRG experts from other countries. In addition to government officials working on DRG development from the five network countries, other participants will include international DRG experts, staff from World Bank and WHO (and other development partners), and select representatives of other countries that are currently implementing or exploring implementing DRGs.