Alaska would swap national manuals for its own guidebook in hospital data and Medicaid payment rules

Alaska hospitals would take their reporting requirements from a state guidebook, not a national billing manual, under changes the Department of Health proposed Sept. 11.

The data elements a facility must report would come from the Alaska Health Facilities Data Reporting Program Guidelines instead of the Official UB-04 Data Specifications Manual 2018. So would the discharge status codes that set how Medicaid prorates inpatient payments when a patient transfers, now taken from the American Hospital Association's 2024 manual.

The proposal names the Guidelines with no edition date; both manuals it strikes carry one.

The department's Health Facilities Data Reporting program collects inpatient and outpatient discharge data, compiling the Alaska Inpatient and Outpatient Databases. Reporting is mandatory quarterly for qualifying facilities; the department says non-reporting facilities "may be referred to the Alaska Health Facilities Licensing and Certification (HFLC) office to determine whether penalties or fines may be appropriate."

Comments are due by 5 p.m. Nov. 4 to Abigail Newby-Kew at [email protected]. A telephone hearing is set for Oct. 27.