General Info

Next Wave ( NWI ) is a health services research, management consulting, and evaluation firm. We are dedicated to helping all sectors of the healthcare industry and regulators provide access to the highest quality care within their given fiscal constraints. We help our clients balance the competing demands created by existing or proposed Federal and State budgets, patient expectations, health plan resources, and provider needs - all within the context of the rapidly-changing healthcare marketplace. Next Wave was founded in 1984 by John D. Shaw and a team of experienced professionals with backgrounds in management and reimbursement consulting, staff training, management engineering and clinical systems design. Our areas of primary focus include measuring: John D. Shaw, the founder and president of Next Wave, has been extensively involved in health care costing, reimbursement, and patient classification since 1972. He has been directly involved in the development and implementation of hospital and long term care reimbursement systems in a number of states based on case mix methodologies ( DRGs and RUGs ). John has also served on a variety of Technical Review Panels established to review the original RUG II classification system and the federal RUG III system, including the case mix index development. NWI has completed numerous projects which involve developing, implementing and evaluating case mix measurement tools for inpatient, outpatient and long-term care. A selection of these engagements include: