The Local Payment Grouper has been developed to be used in line with the National Reimbursement System, as produced by NHS England and NHS Improvement.
The Local Payment Grouper should be used to:
- group data and derive HRGs
- support data quality
- conduct what-if modelling
- assess local reimbursement that will be received under the National Tariff for the 2017/18 financial year
It should be used in conjunction with the Grouper user manual, which explains how data should be sorted and presented for processing by the Grouper.
Before using the Grouper, please read the summary of changes to understand the changes. The introduction of the HRG4+ design for reimbursement purposes is a significant design update.
The Local Payment Grouper has also been updated to reflect advances in usability and performance, and users are advised that the new product will look different to the previous versions. As with previous releases, users must be aware that the Grouper does not apply certain tariff business rules; for example, Prescribed Specialised Service flagging, which are now used to apply reimbursement top-ups where applicable.
Activities relating to Treatment Function Code or other pre-processing exclusions should also be removed from the input data before running through the Local Grouper. As HRG exclusions are at spell level, and the HRG4+ Grouper produces both episode and spell-level HRGs during the same run, HRG exclusions should be made at spell level following grouping. There is no requirement to group data twice. Organisations choosing not to remove exclusion data may generate HRGs that are excluded from national tariff under national funding policy.
In response to problems installing and uninstalling the new product, we've published a product install and uninstall guide to assist users, which includes the minimum system requirements and troubleshooting guidance.
Over the coming months, we're looking to enhance the functionality of the Grouper products. To get involved in the future product development as a beta tester, or if you have ideas or feedback on the current product, please contact [email protected].