Alaska Raised ABA Rates About 41% on July 1. Parent Training Now Pays Like 97155.

Alaska's Division of Behavioral Health published a new autism services fee schedule effective July 1, 2026. It was adopted under regulations project 2026200054 and incorporated at 7 AAC 160.900(d)(73). The core ABA codes rose about 41% from the fiscal 2026 schedule, which itself was a 3.2% inflation adjustment.

The numbers (per 15 minutes)

• 97151: $29.78 → $41.97
• 97153: $22.63 → $31.95
• 97154: $9.04 → $11.47
• 97155: $29.78 → $41.97
• 97156: $18.69 → $41.97
• 97157: $7.47 → $15.19
• 97158: $11.91 → $15.19

The turn: parent training stopped being the cheap code

Under the old schedule, an hour of family guidance paid 63% of an hour of BCBA protocol modification. Now 97151, 97155 and 97156 all pay $41.97, and the multiple-family group code, 97157, more than doubled.

That removes the pricing reason to prefer 97155 over caregiver sessions when both are clinically indicated. How to split authorized QHP time between the two is a clinical call. The fee schedule no longer tilts it.

The limits

The schedule doesn't say why the rates moved. It notes that “payment limits, coverage limitations, mutually exclusive restrictions, or service authorization requirements are not fully addressed in this chart.” We haven't seen the rate study behind it, so we can't say whether the increase is permanent or tied to future appropriations. The percentages above are our arithmetic from the two published schedules.

What you must know or do

• Billers: pull one paid claim per code for dates of service after July 1. Confirm each paid at the new rate.
• Billers: check your billed charge on each code is at least the new rate. Any code still billed at a 2025 charge is worth correcting.
• If remittances since July 1 came in below schedule, send examples to doh.dbh.mpassunit@alaska.gov, the contact on the schedule.
• Clinical directors: at each client's next treatment plan update, revisit the 97155/97156 split on clinical grounds. The old pricing gap is gone.