(a)  Regulations, standards, and guidelines adopted by the authority and by local EMS agencies pursuant to the provisions of this division shall not prohibit hospitals which contract with group practice prepayment health care service plans from providing necessary medical services for the members of those plans.

(b)  Regulations, standards, and guidelines adopted by the authority and by local EMS agencies pursuant to the provisions of this division shall provide for the transport and transfer of a member of a group practice prepayment health care service plan to a hospital that contracts with the plan when the base hospital determines that the condition of the member permits the transport or when the condition of the member permits the transfer, except that when the dispatching agency determines that the transport by a transport unit would unreasonably remove the transport unit from the area, the member may be transported to the nearest hospital capable of treating the member.

(Amended by Stats. 1986, Ch. 248, Sec. 127.)