Health insurance prior authorization deadlines

A wide-ranging update to Alaska's insurance code that creates a licensing and examination system for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and third-party administrators, expands the types of health plans employers can offer, adds insurer financial-reporting requirements, and includes several consumer-protection provisions.

Expands what pharmacists in Alaska can prescribe and test for (including medications for opioid use disorder and treatment for minor conditions), renames the 'physician assistant' license to 'physician associate,' and updates pharmacist reciprocity and collaborative-practice rules. Governor Dunleavy vetoed the bill, citing concerns about expanding pharmacist authority too quickly, but the legislature overrode the veto 43-17.

A statutory cleanup bill that repeals Alaska's catastrophic illness assistance and chronic/acute medical assistance programs, which have had no active participants since Medicaid expansion in 2015 made most eligible Alaskans qualify for standard Medicaid instead.