Section 70. Notification requirements

A. A health carrier shall provide a covered person with written or electronic notification of its benefit determination on appeal. The notification of an adverse benefit determination shall be written in easily understandable language and shall set forth the following:

1. Information sufficient to identify the claim involved with respect to the appeal, including the date of service, the health care provider, the claim amount, and a statement describing the availability, upon request, of the diagnosis code and its corresponding meaning, and the treatment code and its corresponding meaning. The health carrier may not consider a request for diagnosis or treatment information, in itself, to be a request for internal appeal;

2. The specific reason or reasons for the adverse benefit determination;

3. Reference to the specific plan provisions on which the adverse benefit determination is made;

4. A statement that the covered person is entitled to receive, upon request and free of charge, reasonable access to and copies of all documents, records, and other information relevant to the covered person's claim for benefits;

5. A statement indicating whether any additional internal appeals are available or whether the covered person has received a final adverse determination. If internal appeals are available, contact information on where to submit the appeal;

6. A statement describing the external review procedures offered by the health carrier and the covered person's right to obtain information about such procedures and the covered person's right to bring a civil action under § 502(a) of ERISA (29 USC § 1001 et seq.), if applicable; and

7. A statement indicating that the covered person has the right to request an external review if the covered person has not received a final benefit determination within the timeframes provided in 14VAC5-216-40 E, unless the covered person requests or agrees to a delay.

B. In the case of a group health plan, the required notification shall also set forth the following:

1. If an internal rule, guideline, protocol, or other similar criterion (collectively "rule") was relied upon in making the adverse benefit determination, either the specific rule or a statement that such rule was relied upon in making the adverse benefit determination and that a copy of the rule will be provided free of charge to the covered person upon request;

2. If the adverse benefit determination is based on a medical necessity or experimental treatment or similar exclusion or limit, either an explanation of the scientific or clinical judgment for the determination, applying the terms of the plan to the covered person's medical circumstances, or a statement that such explanation will be provided free of charge upon request; and

3. Include a statement indicating that the covered person may have other voluntary alternative dispute resolution options, such as mediation. The covered person should be referred to the appropriate federal or state agency, his plan administrator, or the health carrier, as appropriate.

C. All notices shall be provided in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. The health carrier shall:

1. Provide oral language services, such as a telephone customer hotline, that include answering questions and providing assistance with filing claims, benefit requests, internal appeals, and external review in any applicable non-English language;

2. Provide, upon request, any notice in any applicable non-English language; and

3. Include in the English versions of all notices, a statement prominently displayed in any applicable non-English language clearly indicating how to access the language services provided by the health carrier.

With respect to any address in this Commonwealth to which a notice is sent, a non-English language is an applicable non-English language if 10% or more of the population residing in the city or county is literate only in the same non-English language, as determined by the American Community Survey data published by the United States Census Bureau.

D. Electronic notification shall be in accordance with the provisions of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (§ 59.1-479 et seq. of the Code of Virginia).

Historical Notes

Derived from Volume 27, Issue 22, eff. July 1, 2011; amended, Virginia Register Volume 28, Issue 08, eff. January 1, 2012.

Statutory Authority

§ 12.1-13 and 38.2-223 of the Code of Virginia.