§ 44-6849 — Emergency services; insurer; duties; payment; presumed reasonable; dispute resolution procedure

(1) If a covered person receives emergency services at an in-network or out-of-network health care facility, the insurer shall ensure that the covered person incurs no greater out-of-pocket costs than the covered person would have incurred with an in-network health care provider for covered services.
(2) With respect to emergency services at an in-network or out-of-network health care facility, if the out-of-network health care provider bills an insurer directly, any reimbursement paid by the insurer shall be paid directly to the out-of-network health care provider. The insurer shall provide the out-of-network health care provider with a written remittance of payment that specifies the proposed reimbursement and the applicable deductible, copayment, or coinsurance amounts owed by the covered person.
(3) If emergency services provided at an in-network or out-of-network health care facility are performed, the out-of-network health care provider may bill the insurer for the services rendered. The insurer may pay the billed amount. A claim or a payment shall be presumed reasonable if it is based on the higher of (a) the contracted rate under any then-existing in-network contractual relationship between the insurer and the out-of-network health care provider for the same or similar services or (b) one hundred seventy-five percent of the payment rate for medicare services received from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the same or similar services in the same geographic area. If the out-of-network health care provider deems the payment made by the insurer unreasonable, the out-of-network health care provider shall return payment to the insurer and utilize the dispute resolution procedure under section 44-6850 .

Legislative History

Source: Laws 2020, LB997, § 16.