This bill, known as the Alaska Health Care Consumer’s Right to Shop Act, introduces a comprehensive set of requirements for health care insurers operating in Alaska’s group and individual markets. The bill mandates that insurers provide online and telephone price comparison tools that allow policy holders to compare cost-sharing amounts for specific healthcare services across different providers. More significantly, it establishes an innovative incentive program requiring insurers to develop monetary incentives for patients who choose lower-cost healthcare providers. For group health insurance policies, the insurer must provide the covered person with 33.4% of the cost savings, and the employer with 33.3%. For individual market policies, the covered person receives at least 50% of the cost savings. The bill also requires insurers to annually report details about these incentive programs, including total payments, service categories, and participation rates. Additionally, the bill reserves the authority to regulate healthcare service price information disclosure exclusively to the state, preventing municipalities from creating their own regulations. The Department of Administration is tasked with analyzing potential benefits of applying these requirements to state employee group health insurance policies, and must submit a report to the legislature by January 31, 2026. The bill’s provisions will take effect on January 1, 2026, with some immediate implementation of regulatory preparation.