Oklahoma 2024 2024 Regular Session

Oklahoma House Bill HB2872 Amended / Bill

Filed 02/29/2024

                     
 
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES - FLOOR VERSION 
 
STATE OF OKLAHOMA 
 
2nd Session of the 59th Legislature (2024) 
 
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE 
FOR 
HOUSE BILL NO. 2872 	By: Wallace and Moore of the 
House 
 
   and 
 
  Rosino of the Senate 
 
 
 
 
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE 
 
An Act relating to ambulances; creating the Out-of-
Network Ambulance Provider Act ; defining terms; 
setting minimum allowable rates; requiring certain 
payment to be payments in full; restricting billing 
to certain persons; setting certain limits on certain 
payments; requiring certain payment s to certain 
entities; requiring certain timelines for certain 
payments; providing for certain processes for 
specific purposes; providing for codification; and 
providing an effective date . 
 
 
 
 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEO PLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA: 
SECTION 1.     NEW LAW     A ne w section of law to be codified 
in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 6050.1 of Title 36, unless there 
is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows: 
This act shall be kno wn and may be cited as the "Out-of-Network 
Ambulance Provider Act".   
 
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SECTION 2.    NEW LAW     A new section of law to be codified 
in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 6050.2 of Title 36, unless there 
is created a duplication in numbering, r eads as follows: 
As used in the Out-of-Network Ambulance Provider Act: 
1.  "Ambulance service provider" means any ground ambulance 
service provider as defined by this act as any ground vehicle which 
is or should be approved by th e Commissioner of Health, d esigned and 
equipped to transport a patient or patients on-scene and en route 
patient stabilization and care as required.  Ground vehicles used as 
ambulances shall meet s uch standards as may be required by the 
Oklahoma State Board of Health for approval, a nd shall display 
evidence of such approval at all times ; 
2.  "Covered services" means those ground ambulance services 
which an enrollee is entitled to receive under the t erms of a health 
care benefit plan; 
3.  "Enrollee" means a person who is entit led to receive covered 
health care services under the terms of a health care benefit plan; 
4.  "Health care benefit plan" means a plan, policy, contract, 
certificate, agreement, or other evidence of coverage for health 
care services offered, issued, renewed, or extended in this state by 
a health care insurer; 
5.  "Health care insurer" means an entity that is subject to 
state insurance regulation and provides coverage for health benefits 
in this state and includes the following:   
 
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a. an insurance company, 
b. health maintenance organization, 
c. hospital and medical service corporation, 
d. risk-based provider organization, or 
e. sponsor or self-funded plan; 
6.  "Out-of-network" means a provider that does not contract 
with the health care insurer of the enrollee receiving the covered 
benefits; and 
7.  "Clean claim" means a claim that has no defect of 
impropriety, including any lack of required substantiating 
documentation or particular circumstances requiring special 
treatment that prevents timely payment from being made o n the claim. 
SECTION 3.     NEW LAW     A new section of law t o be codified 
in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 6050.3 of Title 36, unless there 
is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows: 
A.  The minimum allowable reimbursemen t rate under any health 
care benefit plan issued by a h ealth care insurer to an out-of-
network ambulance service provider for providing ground services 
shall be at the rates set or approved , whether in contract or 
ordinance, by a local governmen tal entity in the jurisdiction in 
which the covered health care services originates. 
B.  In the absence of the rates as provided in subsection A of 
this section, the rate shall be the lesser of:   
 
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1.  Three hundred twenty-five percent (325%) of the current 
published rate for ambulance services as established by the Centers 
for Medicare and Medic aid Services under Title XVIII of the Social 
Security Act for the same services provided in the same geographic 
area; or 
2.  The ambulance service provi der's billed charges. 
C.  Payment made in compliance with this section shall be 
considered payment in f ull for the covered services provided, except 
for any copayment, coinsurance, deductible , and other cost-sharing 
feature amounts required to be paid by the enrollee.  An ambulance 
service provider is proh ibited from billing the enroll ee for any 
additional amounts for the paid covered services in excess of what 
the health care insurer pays. 
D.  All copayments, coinsurance, deductible , and other cost-
sharing feature amounts provided by subsection A of this section 
shall not exceed the in-network copayment, coinsurance, deductible, 
and other cost-sharing features for the covered health care services 
received by the enrollee. 
E.  A health care insurer shall, within thirty (30) days after 
of a clean claim for covered services, promptly remit payment for 
ambulance services directly to the ambulance service provider and 
shall not send payment to an enrollee. 
F.  If the claim is not a cl ean claim, the health care insurer 
shall, within thirty (30) days after receipt of the claim, send a   
 
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written notice acknowledging the date of the receipt of the claim 
and shall provide one of the following items: 
1.  That the insurer is decl ining to pay all or part of the 
claim and the specific reason or reasons for the denial; or 
2.  That additional information i s necessary to determine if all 
or part of the claim is payable as well as the specific additional 
information that is required. 
SECTION 4.  This act shall become effective November 1, 2024. 
 
COMMITTEE REPORT BY: COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS AND BUDGET, dated 
02/26/2024 - DO PASS, As Amended and Coauthored.