494 — Lower Extremity and Humerus Procedures Except Hip, Foot and Femur without CC/MCC

MS-DRG 494, Lower Extremity and Humerus Procedures Except Hip, Foot and Femur without CC/MCC, is a surgical DRG in MDC 08 (Diseases and Disorders of the Musculoskeletal System and Connective Tissue) under MS-DRG version 44.0, which applies to inpatient discharges from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.

Its FY2027 relative weight is 2.0257, so Medicare's base payment for this DRG is about 2.03 times the average inpatient case, before hospital-specific adjustments. The geometric mean length of stay is 2.8 days and the arithmetic mean is 3.3 days.

It belongs to a 3-level severity family: DRG 492 (with MCC or Insertion of Antibiotic-eluting Bone Void Filler, weight 3.6914), DRG 493 (with CC, weight 2.5528) and DRG 494 (without CC/MCC, weight 2.0257). The highest-severity level carries 1.8 times the weight of the lowest, which is why documenting CC and MCC conditions matters.

It is subject to Medicare's post-acute care transfer policy, so payment can be reduced when a patient with a shorter-than-average stay is discharged to a skilled nursing facility, home health or another post-acute setting.