What Healthcare Costs in Alaska

Comparing Alaska medical prices against Medicare national rates, Lower-48 hospitals, and Alaska Medicaid • CY2026 CMS Medicare Fee Schedule + CMS price transparency filings + Alaska DHCS

24.4x
Alaska hospital avg vs
Medicare national rate
4.5x
Lower-48 hospital avg vs
Medicare national rate
1.6x
Alaska hospital avg vs
Lower-48 hospital avg
7,718
Medicare procedure codes
in comparison

Office visits compared across five benchmarks. Procedure codes are standard HCPCS identifiers; descriptions are original plain-language summaries.

AK Hospital source
AK Provider source
L48 Hospital source
AK Medicaid source
Medicare AK Rate source
Medicare National source

Alaska hospital charges as a multiple of the Medicare national rate. Data from CMS price transparency filings and CMS Medicare PFS CY2026.

Price comparison across all hospitals in the dataset. Darker/redder = higher price. Alaska hospitals are outlined in red. Click any cell to open that hospital's source price transparency file and verify the data directly. Hover for details.

All matched procedure codes. Click headers to sort. HCPCS codes link to CMS HCPCS reference.

Code Description Med Natl Med AK AK Medicaid AK Hospital L48 Hospital AK/Medicare AK Provider

Alaska outpatient provider prices from the Alaska DHSS provider directory. Cash/self-pay rates.

Data Sources & Methodology

1. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule CY2026 (CMS PFALL26AR) — Full CY2026 fee schedule covering 7,718 procedure codes. "Medicare national" averages all localities; "Medicare AK" uses Alaska-specific locality rates incorporating the Alaska GPCI (work floor 1.50, set by statute — already accounting for Alaska's higher costs).

2. Hospital Standard Charges (CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule) — Machine-readable standard charges from 13 hospitals. Prices are discounted cash rates where available, gross charges otherwise. Click any heatmap cell to open that hospital's source file. Note: published list prices differ from negotiated insurance rates.

3. Alaska Provider Prices (Alaska DHSS Provider Directory) — Self-pay prices from 7 Alaska outpatient clinics.

4. Alaska Medicaid FY2026 (Alaska DHCS) — Maximum reimbursement for 6,965 codes, effective 7/1/2025–6/30/2026.

Data anomalies: Some hospital transparency files contain unusual values (e.g., $0.42 for a service). These are reported as-filed from the hospital's own machine-readable data. Click the cell to open and verify the source pricing file directly. For hospital heatmap cells, the source link opens that hospital's CMS-required machine-readable price file. Missing cells (dark background) indicate the code was not listed in that hospital's file.

5. HCPCS Codes (CMS HCPCS 2026 Annual Update) — Code numbers are factual identifiers. Level II descriptions are CMS-authored. Level I descriptions are original plain-language summaries, not AMA copyrighted CPT® text.

Attribution: HCPCS code numbers used as factual identifiers. CPT® is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association. Descriptions are original summaries, not AMA text. All underlying data is publicly available — click any source link or heatmap cell to verify. Medicare: CMS PFS CY2026 • Hospital prices: CMS price transparency • Medicaid: Alaska DHCS FY2026 • HCPCS: CMS 2026 Annual Update