Specifications include, but are not limited to: • Evaluate Alaska’s prospective payment system for establishing hospital payments and determine whether the system can be modified to align with the implementation of DRGs in Alaska • Identify the process for setting hospital base rates in at least two other state’s that use DRGs within their Medicaid program and evaluate whether the base rate setting methodologies in those states could be adopted in Alaska. To the extent possible, the states should have similar characteristics to Alaska and should have an established base-rate development processes that can be easily replicated • Using the models identified, provide an analysis of the change in payment rates for each of Alaska’s hospitals under each model chosen including a financial analysis and comparison of the Medicaid payments to each of the hospitals transitioning to DRGs • Provide a recommendation for the model that can most reliably and consistently produce hospital base-rates that can be implemented by Alaska Medicaid in support of the DRG payment system • A project plan including the milestones necessary to implement a DRG based payment methodology by July 1, 2020. • A communication and outreach plan to a maximum of 9 hospitals that will ensure collaboration with the provider community throughout the process.