Abstract To investigate the reaction of hospitals in burn patient to the announcement of the coming diagnosis related groups (DRGs) payment system in 2014. The claimed data of 506 inpatients from 2009 to 2010 was used for the longitudinal analyses. The average length of stay (ALOS) and medical expenses of each burn patient were compared with the baseline data of 2009. The year effect was analyzed by the generalized estimating equation model. Comparing to the data in 2009, the average length of stay (ALOS) was increased, but medical expenses were decreased. The limitation of the scheme such as insufficient classification of case severity and hospital creep are also discussed. Medical expenses are different in different property of hospitals. Similar resource intensity is unfortunately seriously misunderstood as unified single federal rate in Taiwan. It is concluded that the coming DRGs payment system may changed hospital behavior. This change of hospital behavior may influence the quality of health care.