Terms Used In Florida Statutes 641.3156

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Health maintenance organization: means any organization authorized under this part which:
    (a) Provides, through arrangements with other persons, emergency care, inpatient hospital services, physician care including care provided by physicians licensed under chapters 458, 459, 460, and 461, ambulatory diagnostic treatment, and preventive health care services. See Florida Statutes 641.19
  • Provider: means any physician, hospital, or other institution, organization, or person that furnishes health care services and is licensed or otherwise authorized to practice in the state. See Florida Statutes 641.19
  • Subscriber: means an entity or individual who has contracted, or on whose behalf a contract has been entered into, with a health maintenance organization for health care coverage or other persons who also receive health care coverage as a result of the contract. See Florida Statutes 641.19

(1) A health maintenance organization must pay any hospital-service or referral-service claim for treatment for an eligible subscriber which was authorized by a provider empowered by contract with the health maintenance organization to authorize or direct the patient’s utilization of health care services and which was also authorized in accordance with the health maintenance organization’s current and communicated procedures, unless the provider provided information to the health maintenance organization with the willful intention to misinform the health maintenance organization.
(2) A claim for treatment may not be denied if a provider follows the health maintenance organization’s authorization procedures and receives authorization for a covered service for an eligible subscriber, unless the provider provided information to the health maintenance organization with the willful intention to misinform the health maintenance organization.
(3) Emergency services are subject to the provisions of s. 641.513 and are not subject to the provisions of this section.