§ 36-7500 — Anesthesia coverage.

A. As used in this section: 1. “Anesthesia time” means the period beginning when an anesthesia practitioner begins to prepare the patient for anesthesia services in the operating room or an equivalent area and ends when the anesthesia practitioner is no longer furnishing anesthesia services to the patient. In counting anesthesia time for services furnished, the anesthesia practitioner may include blocks of time around an interruption in anesthesia time provided the anesthesia practitioner is furnishing continuous anesthesia care within the time periods around the interruption; 2. “Payments for anesthesia service” means the prevailing medical coding and billing standards in the professional medical billing community including, but not limited to, current AMA CPT Codebook, Medicare Claims Processing Manual, and American Society of Anesthesiologists guidance. Payment for anesthesia services is based on base plus time unit together multiplied by an anesthesia conversion factor. Anesthesia time units are recognized in appropriate time intervals that must add up to the duration of the anesthesia time; and 3. “Insurer” shall have the same meaning as defined in Section 1250.2 of Title 36 of the Oklahoma Statutes. B. No insurer shall establish, implement, or enforce any policy, practice, or procedure which: 1. Imposes a time limit on the amount of covered anesthesia services provided during a medical or surgical procedure; or 2. Restricts or excludes coverage or payment of anesthesia time.

Legislative History

Added by Laws 2025, c. 170, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2025.