GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 1999

SESSION LAW 1999-168
SENATE BILL 344

AN ACT TO PROVIDE EXPANDED ACCESS TO SPECIALTY CARE IN MANAGED CARE PLANS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  Article 3 of Chapter 58 of the General Statutes is amended by adding the following section to read:
"§ 58-3-223.  Managed care access to specialist care.
(a)	Each insurer offering a health benefit plan that does not allow direct access to all in-plan specialists shall develop and maintain written policies and procedures by which an insured may receive an extended or standing referral to an in-plan specialist.  The procedure shall provide for an extended or standing referral to a specialist if the insured has a serious or chronic degenerative, disabling, or life-threatening disease or condition, which in the opinion of the insured's primary care physician, in consultation with the specialist, requires ongoing specialty care. The extended or standing referral shall be for a period not to exceed 12 months and shall be made under a treatment plan coordinated with the insurer in consultation with the primary care physician, the specialist, and the insured or the insured's designee.
(b)	As used in this section:
(1)	'Health benefit plan' means an accident and health insurance policy or certificate; a nonprofit hospital or medical service corporation contract; a health maintenance organization subscriber contract; a plan provided by a multiple employer welfare arrangement; or a plan provided by another benefit arrangement, to the extent permitted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, or by any waiver of or other exception to that Act provided under federal law or regulation.  'Health benefit plan' does not mean any plan implemented or administered by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services or the United States Department of Health and Human Services, or any successor agency, or its representatives.  'Health benefit plan' also does not mean any of the following kinds of insurance:
a.	Accident.
b.	Credit.
c.	Disability income.
d.	Long-term care or nursing home care.
e.	Medicare supplement.
f.	Specified disease.
g.	Dental or vision.
h.	Coverage issued as a supplement to liability insurance.
i.	Workers' compensation.
j.	Medical payments under automobile or homeowners.
k.	Hospital income or indemnity.
l.	Insurance under which benefits are payable with or without regard to fault and that are statutorily required to be contained in any liability policy or equivalent self-insurance.
(2)	'Insurer' means an entity that writes a health benefit plan and that is an insurance company subject to this Chapter, a service corporation under Article 65 of this Chapter, or a health maintenance organization under Article 67 of this Chapter, or a multiple employer welfare arrangement under Article 49 of this Chapter.
(3)	'Serious or chronic degenerative, disabling, or life-threatening disease or condition' means a disease or condition, which in the opinion of the patient's treating primary care physician and specialist, requires frequent and periodic monitoring and consultation with the specialist on an ongoing basis."
Section 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to health benefit plans that are delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2000. For purposes of this act, renewal of a health benefit policy, contract, or plan is presumed to occur on each anniversary of the date on which coverage was first effective on the person or persons covered by the health benefit plan.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 31st day of May, 1999.

s/	Marc Basnight
President Pro Tempore of the Senate

s/	James B. Black
Speaker of the House of Representatives

s/	James B. Hunt, Jr.
Governor

Approved 5:39 p.m. this 8th day of June, 1999