Bill Text: MS HB876 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Health care services; require disclosure of an arrangement that results in payor paying a provider a reduced rate for.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2015-02-03 - Died In Committee [HB876 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2015-HB876-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2015 Regular Session
To: Insurance
By: Representative Haney
House Bill 876
AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE DISCLOSURE TO A PAYOR OF AN ARRANGEMENT THAT RESULTS IN A PAYOR PAYING A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER A REDUCED RATE FOR SERVICES BASED ON A PROVIDER'S PARTICIPATION IN A NETWORK OR PANEL; TO PROVIDE CERTAIN DEFINITIONS; TO PROVIDE CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS FOR CONTRACTING AGENTS INCLUDING THE REQUIREMENT TO MAKE CERTAIN DISCLOSURES; TO PROVIDE CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS TO PAYORS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. The following words and phrases have the meanings ascribed in this section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(a) "Beneficiary" means:
(i) For workers' compensation insurance, an employee seeking health care services for a work-related injury.
(ii) For automobile insurance, those persons covered under the medical payments portion of the insurance contract.
(iii) For group or individual health services covered through a health care service plan contract, including a specialized health care service plan contract, or a policy of disability insurance that covers hospital, medical, or surgical benefits, a subscriber, an enrollee, a policyholder or an insured.
(b) "Contracting agent" means a health care service plan, including a specialized health care service plan, while engaged, for monetary or other consideration, in the act of selling, leasing, transferring, assigning or conveying, a provider or provider panel to payors to provide health care services to beneficiaries.
(c) (i) For the purposes of Section 2(2) of this act, "payor" means a health care service plan, including a specialized health care service plan, an insurer licensed to provide disability insurance that covers hospital, medical, or surgical benefits, automobile insurance, workers' compensation insurance, or a self-insured employer that is responsible to pay for health care services provided to beneficiaries.
(ii) For the purposes of Section 2(3) of this act, "payor" means only a health care service plan, including a specialized health care service plan that has purchased, leased or otherwise obtained the use of a provider or provider panel to provide health care services to beneficiaries pursuant to a contract that authorizes payment at discounted rates.
(d) "Payor summary" means a written summary that includes the payor's name and the type of plan, including, but not limited to, a group health plan, an automobile insurance plan, and a workers' compensation insurance plan.
SECTION 2. (1) In order to prevent the improper selling, leasing, or transferring of a health care provider's contract, it is the intent of the Legislature that every arrangement that results in a payor paying a health care provider a reduced rate for health care services based on the health care provider's participation in a network or panel shall be disclosed to the provider in advance and that the payor shall actively encourage beneficiaries to use the network, unless the health care provider agrees to provide discounts without that active encouragement.
(2) Every contracting agent that sells, leases, assigns, transfers or conveys its list of contracted health care providers and their contracted reimbursement rates to a payor or another contracting agent, shall, upon entering or renewing a provider contract, do all of the following:
(a) Disclose to the provider whether the list of contracted providers may be sold, leased, transferred or conveyed to other payors or other contracting agents, and specify whether those payors or contracting agents include workers' compensation insurers or automobile insurers;
(b) Disclose what specific practices, if any, payors utilize to actively encourage a payor's beneficiaries to use the list of contracted providers when obtaining medical care that entitles a payor to claim a contracted rate. For purposes of this paragraph, a payor is deemed to have actively encouraged its beneficiaries to use the list of contracted providers if one (1) of the following occurs:
(i) The payor's contract with subscribers or insureds offers beneficiaries direct financial incentives to use the list of contracted providers when obtaining medical care. "Financial incentives" means reduced copayments, reduced deductibles, premium discounts directly attributable to the use of a provider panel or financial penalties directly attributable to the nonuse of a provider panel; or
(ii) The payor provides information to its beneficiaries, who are parties to the contract, or, in the case of workers' compensation insurance, the employer, advising them of the existence of the list of contracted providers through the use of a variety of advertising or marketing approaches that supply the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of contracted providers to beneficiaries in advance of their selection of a health care provider, which approaches may include, but are not limited to, the use of provider directories, or the use of toll-free telephone numbers or Internet website addresses supplied directly to every beneficiary. However, Internet website addresses alone shall not be deemed to satisfy the requirements of this subparagraph. Nothing in this subparagraph shall prevent contracting agents or payors from providing only listings of providers located within a reasonable geographic range of a beneficiary.
(c) Disclose whether payors to which the list of contracted providers may be sold, leased, transferred or conveyed may be permitted to pay a provider's contracted rate without actively encouraging the payors' beneficiaries to use the list of contracted providers when obtaining medical care. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to require a payor to actively encourage the payor's beneficiaries to use the list of contracted providers when obtaining medical care in the case of an emergency;
(d) Disclose, upon the initial signing of a contract, and within thirty (30) calendar days of receipt of a written request from a provider or provider panel, a payor summary of all payors currently eligible to claim a provider's contracted rate due to the provider's and payor's respective written agreement with any contracting agent; and
(e) Allow providers, upon the initial signing, renewal, or amendment of a provider contract, to decline to be included in any list of contracted providers that is sold, leased, transferred or conveyed to payors that do not actively encourage the payors' beneficiaries to use the list of contracted providers when obtaining medical care as described in paragraph (b) of this subsection. Each provider's election under this paragraph (e) shall be binding on the contracting agent with which the provider has the contract and any contracting agent that buys, leases, or otherwise obtains the list of contracted providers. A provider shall not be excluded from any list of contracted providers that is sold, leased, transferred or conveyed to payors that actively encourage the payors' beneficiaries to use the list of contracted providers when obtaining medical care, based upon the provider's refusal to be included on any list of contracted providers that is sold, leased, transferred or conveyed to payors that do not actively encourage the payors' beneficiaries to use the list of contracted providers when obtaining medical care.
(f) Nothing in this subsection (2) shall be construed to impose requirements or regulations upon payors.
(3) A payor shall do all of the following:
(a) Provide an explanation of benefits or explanation of review that identifies the name of the network that has a written agreement signed by the provider whereby the payor is entitled, directly or indirectly, to pay a preferred rate for the services rendered; and
(b) Demonstrate that it is entitled to pay a contracted rate within thirty (30) business days of receipt of a written request from a provider who has received a claim payment from the payor. The failure of a payor to make the demonstration within thirty (30) business days shall render the payor responsible for the amount that the payor would have been required to pay pursuant to the applicable health care service plan contract, including a specialized health care service plan contract, covering the beneficiary, which amount shall be due and payable within ten (10) business days of receipt of written notice from the provider, and shall bar the payor from taking any future discounts from that provider without the provider's express written consent until the payor can demonstrate to the provider that it is entitled to pay a contracted rate as provided in this paragraph (b). A payor shall be deemed to have demonstrated that it is entitled to pay a contracted rate if it complies with either of the following:
(i) Discloses the name of the network that has a written agreement with the provider whereby the provider agrees to accept discounted rates, and describes the specific practices the payor utilizes to comply with subsection (2)(b) of this section.
(ii) Identifies the provider's written agreement with a contracting agent whereby the provider agrees to be included on lists of contracted providers sold, leased, transferred or conveyed to payors that do not actively encourage beneficiaries to use the list of contracted providers pursuant to subsection (2)(e) of this section.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2015.
