House committee advances bill to require insurance coverage for prosthetics; sets 2027 effective date

The House Health and Social Services Committee advanced House Bill 272 on April 7, a measure directing insurers regulated under title 21 to cover prescribed prosthetics and orthotics, and adopted a conceptual amendment to make section 1 effective Jan. 1, 2027.

The bill sponsor and committee heard directly from Heather Carpenter, director of the Division of Insurance, who told the committee the division’s fiscal note assumes the state will allocate funds to defray costs to individual and small-group markets. "Through the chair, Representative Prox, you are correct that the state — that is why we have a fiscal note that has a specific amount. We would need to defray the cost to the individual and small group markets," Carpenter said.

Carpenter named the insurers in Alaska’s regulated market she expected HB272 would affect — Premera, Moda, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna (the latter in large-group plans) — and said the division’s estimate put the premium-dollar impact at about $0.40 per member per month with a built-in 5% inflation factor. "We tried to use our best estimate of what that demand uptake would be," she said, adding the division sought to be defensible and not overstate costs.

Committee members pressed whether demand would grow once insurance covered prosthetics. Carpenter said the fiscal note attempted a conservative uptake estimate but acknowledged uncertainty and that the Department of Health’s fiscal note on Medicaid impacts remains indeterminate and must be addressed by that department.

Representative Fields moved conceptual amendment number 1 to add an effective date for section 1 of Jan. 1, 2027; with no objection the chair adopted the amendment. A subsequent motion to report HB272 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes passed without recorded objection; the chair announced HB272 "as amended passes from committee." Staff will prepare and sign the committee report.

The committee’s action moves HB272 to the next step with the division’s fiscal note and questions about Medicaid exposure left for the Department of Health to address in future consideration.