AK SB3

Establishes the Alaska Health Care Consumer's Right to Shop Act to require health care insurers offering group or individual market policies to provide price comparison tools and telephone guidance to help enrollees compare costs among participating providers.

Mandates insurers develop incentive programs that reward covered persons for choosing providers charging less than median contracted rates, with incentive payments of at least 33.4 percent of savings for group policies and 50 percent for individual market policies.

Requires insurers to file program descriptions with the director of insurance and annually report incentive program data including total payments, participation rates, and savings achieved by service category.

Clarifies that incentive payments do not violate rebate prohibitions or count as administrative expenses for rate-setting purposes, and allows out-of-network savings to apply toward cost-sharing obligations.

Takes effect January 1, 2024; directs Department of Administration to report by January 31, 2024 on whether state employee health plans should comply with the new requirements.