Pharmacist scope of practice and physician associate renaming

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.

Requires health insurers to respond to prior-authorization requests for medical care within set deadlines: 72 hours for routine requests and 24 hours for expedited ones. The bill passed the legislature unanimously and became law without the governor's signature.

Loosens supervision requirements for physician assistants, allowing those with more than 4,000 hours of postgraduate clinical experience to practice without a collaborative agreement at certain facilities, and reduces the number of physicians required to enter a collaborative agreement from two to one.