Alaska proposes to drop its $190.50 newborn screening fee and set the charge by a formula

Alaska charges $190.50 for newborn bloodspot screening, the blood test state rules require for every baby born here unless a parent refuses it. The Department of Health proposed Monday to strike that figure from its fee schedule and calculate the charge instead.

The formula is in the public review draft filed with the notice: the projected annual cost of running the statewide screening program, divided by the projected number of newborns expected to be screened. The draft lists what counts as program cost: contracted laboratory testing, courier transport of specimens, quality assurance, specialty consultation and follow-up care, program staff, and education and outreach. It does not say what the resulting charge would be.

Written comments are due by 5 p.m. on Nov. 2. They may be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to the Division of Public Health in Anchorage. The department will take oral comments at a teleconference hearing on Oct. 22 from noon to 1 p.m.

The same draft strikes a second charge, $100 for each specimen submitted that the screening rules do not require. Whatever the formula produces has a ceiling: under AS 44.29.022 the commissioner of health may set fees by regulation, but a fee may not exceed the actual cost of providing the service.

The department stated its reason on a form filed with the notice, checking "Other" and writing "Increase agency efficiency." The same form estimates the annual cost of complying with the change at $0 each for a private person, a municipality and another state agency.

A 2018 public review draft set the fee at $159.50 per infant screened.

Alaskans who need a reasonable accommodation to take part must contact Lorrie Folmar, a newborn bloodspot screening nurse consultant with the Division of Public Health, by Oct. 14.

Commissioner Heidi Hedberg signed the notice Monday. It is the department's own account. No comment from hospitals, birth workers or parents appears in it.