Committee extends telehealth pay-parity sunset to 2040, allows geographic pay differential

The Alaska House Labor and Commerce Committee adopted amendments to SB 83 on May 15 that extend the statutory sunset for telehealth pay parity and permit insurers to use geographic pay differentials when reimbursing providers.

Senator Matt Klayman (sponsor) told the committee the bill "provides in the most broad basis its pay parity between telehealth rates and in person rates." Co-chair Fields moved amendment W.2 to delay the existing repealer/sunset from 2030 to 2040, and Evan Anderson, staff to Co-chair Fields, said the change "pushes that repeal date out to 2040," which the Department of Health has said gives it "more flexibility to promulgate regulations when it comes to telehealth." Klayman described the provision as a sunset and said extending it would postpone the time when mandatory pay parity would lapse: "This extends the sunset to 2040... and at that point the legislature would need to look at it again about whether or not we wanna maintain pay parity."

Representative Sadler pressed the practical basis for the policy, asking whether studies demonstrate telehealth’s efficacy across medical specialties. Klayman replied he was not aware of specific studies but had "talked with providers in other parts of the country" and that studies are underway. The committee recorded no on-the-record departmental witness to answer the technical question.

Co-chair Fields also moved amendment W.3 to add language allowing an insurer to use a geographic pay differential to reimburse out-of-state providers, which Fields said was intended "to avoid creating an incentive to move health care providers... to a lower‑wage state." Fields and others argued the provision prevents a multistate employer from paying Alaska rates to providers who live in lower‑cost states and thereby shifting labor out of Alaska.

Both amendments were adopted by the committee with no recorded objection, and Co-chair Fields moved to report SB 83 out of committee "as amended with individual recommendations and accompanying fiscal notes." The motion carried; SB 83 was reported out as amended.

The committee set an amendment deadline earlier in the process and held a public‑testimony period for the bill; no members of the public testified in person or online on May 15. The committee’s action sends the amended bill to the next step in the legislative process with accompanying fiscal notes.