Page 2984

(b) The DRG payment methodology does not apply to critical access hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, and long-term acute care hospitals. Tribally owned and operated general acute care hospitals not being paid under the state payment methodology are exempted from the DRG payment methodology. Tribally owned and operated general acute care hospitals may opt in to the DRG payment methodology upon notification to the department. (c) The department will assign a new in-state general acute care hospital or designated border hospital the in-state average base rate and cost-to-charge ratio until a hospital-specific base rate and cost-to-charge ratio can be determined during the next biennial or triennial DRG rate update. (d) The department will periodically update base rates and other DRG system parameters. The department will make updates on a biennial or triennial basis as determined by the department. If base rates are updated triennially, the department will adjust base rates between years two and three using the most recent quarterly publication of the IHS Markit Healthcare Cost Review, Hospital Market Basket inflationary index, available 60 days before the beginning of a facility’s fiscal year. The department will determine classification as a border hospital during the DRG update process. (Eff. 1/1/2024, Register 248) Statutory Authority: Authority: AS 47.05.010 AS 47.07.070 AS 47.07.073 7 AAC 150.990. Definitions. (1) “adjusted Medicare cost report” means a base year’s Medicare cost report that has been adjusted in accordance with 7 AAC 150.170 or 7 AAC 150.200; (2) “All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Groups” or “APR DRG” means a type of classification system used to assign inpatient stays to a Diagnosis Related Group (DRG), under which a grouping algorithm utilizes the diagnoses code, procedure code, patient birthdate, patient age, patient gender, admission date, discharge date, and discharge status to assign a DRG code to each claim; (3) “assets” means all economic resources of a health facility, recognized and measured in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles; in this paragraph, “assets” include certain deferred charges that are not resources but that are recognized and measured in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles; (4) “audit” means the systematic inspection of accounting records involving analyses, tests,