April 5, 2018
Do you know the costs of care for your patients? Care costs vary greatly in Alaska, depending on location and the provider organization. In this series of articles, we’ll show care costs based on approximately 4,000 claims in Alaska. The data reflects a year’s worth of claims from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. The costs shown are allowed amounts—amounts paid by Premera and our members for care, based on contracts between Premera and healthcare providers. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar.
Lab tests
The basic metabolic panel and general health panel are two of the most common lab tests that providers order for patients. Below are the average total costs for these two common tests—the allowed amounts, as described above. Patients’ out-of-pocket costs may be less.
Basic metabolic panel – average allowed amount.
| Region |
Minimum |
Average |
Maximum |
| Anchorage |
$9 |
$131 |
$263 |
| Fairbanks |
$59 |
$75 |
$91 |
| Non-metro AK |
$9 |
$96 |
$572 |
General health panel – average allowed amount.
| Region |
Minimum |
Average |
Maximum |
| Anchorage |
$35 |
$58 |
$205 |
| Fairbanks |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A* |
| Non-metro AK |
$25 |
$113 |
$481 |
As we partner with providers to make healthcare work better, our goal is to ensure that our members receive the right service at a fair price. To help us in that effort, check with your administrators to see if you have options to lower contract rates or use other lab partners.
*We didn’t have enough claims in Fairbanks to estimate average costs for the general health panel test.