Morbidity Related Groups (MRG) for Epidemiological Analysis in Outpatient Treatment.

Each patient in outpatient treatment is assigned per quarter and corresponding physician to a case group that is strongly related to the morbidity (Morbidity Related Group, MRG). MRG is defined by the drug group on a four character level in the international anatomic-therapeutic-chemical (ATC) classification with the largest costs as an indicator for the severity of the drug treatment. Using severity levels we get a risk adjustment with respect to age and polypharmacy as an indicator for multimorbidity and treatment intensity.