DRG Relative Weight

SAS Name
DRG_RLTV_WT

The relative weight for the DRG on the claim. Each year CMS assigns a relative weight to each DRG. These weights indicate the relative costs for treating patients during the prior year. The national average charge for each DRG is compared to the overall average.

Comments

This ratio is published annually in the Federal Register for each DRG. A DRG with a weight of 2.0000 means that charges were historically twice the average; a DRG with a weight of 0.5000 was half the average.

Note that the DRG_CD is not always a CMS DRG.  Refer to the DRG Code System/Nomenclature variable (called DRG_CD_SYS).

SOURCE: T-MSIS Analytic File (TAF) Claims

Valid numeric, four decimal places (e.g., 1.0329)
Code Code value
Null/missing source value is missing or unknown