As used in this Chapter:

            (1) “Adverse determination” means any of the following:

            (a) A determination by a health insurance issuer or its designee utilization review organization that, based upon the information provided, a request for a benefit under the health insurance issuer’s health benefit plan upon application of any utilization review technique does not meet the health insurance issuer’s requirements for medical necessity, appropriateness, health care setting, level of care, or effectiveness or is determined to be experimental or investigational and the requested benefit is therefore denied, reduced, or terminated or payment is not provided or made, in whole or in part, for the benefit.

            (b) The denial, reduction, termination, or failure to provide or make payment, in whole or in part, for a benefit based on a determination by a health insurance issuer or its designee utilization review organization of a covered person‘s eligibility to participate in the health insurance issuer’s health benefit plan.

            (c) Any prospective review or retrospective review determination that denies, reduces, or terminates or fails to provide or make payment, in whole or in part, for a benefit under a health benefit plan.

            (d) A rescission of coverage determination.

            (e) For purposes of this Chapter, Part III of this Chapter relative to external reviews shall apply only to adverse determinations and final adverse determinations that involve medical necessity, appropriateness, health care setting, level of care, effectiveness, experimental or investigational treatment, or a rescission. Part II of this Chapter shall apply to any other adverse determination or final adverse determination.

            (2) “Ambulatory review” means utilization review of health care services performed or provided in an outpatient setting.

            (3) “Authorized representative” means any of the following:

            (a) A person to whom a covered person has given express written consent to represent the covered person for purposes of this Chapter. It may also include the covered person’s treating provider if the covered person appoints the provider as his authorized representative and the provider waives in writing any right to payment from the covered person other than any applicable copayment or other coinsurance amount. In the event that the service is determined not to be medically necessary, and the covered person or his authorized representatives, except for the covered person’s treating health care professional, thereafter requests the services, nothing shall prohibit the provider from charging usual and customary charges for all non-medically necessary services provided.

            (b) A person authorized by law to provide substituted consent for a covered person.

            (c) An immediate family member of the covered person or the covered person’s treating health care professional when the covered person is unable to provide consent.

            (d) In the case of an urgent care request, a health care professional with knowledge of the covered person’s medical condition.

            (4) “Best evidence” means evidence based on any of the following:

            (a) Randomized clinical trials.

            (b) If randomized clinical trials are not available, cohort studies, or case-control studies.

            (c) If Subparagraphs (a) and (b) of this Paragraph are not available, case-series.

            (d) If Subparagraphs (a), (b), and (c) of this Paragraph are not available, expert opinion.

            (5) “Business day” means a day of normal business operation other than federally recognized holidays. Any day not specified as a business day shall be a twenty-four-hour period, including weekends and holidays.

            (6) “Case-control study” means a retrospective evaluation of two groups of patients with different outcomes to determine which specific interventions the patients received.

            (7) “Case management” means a coordinated set of activities conducted for individual patient management of serious, complicated, protracted, or other health conditions.

            (8) “Case-series” means an evaluation of a series of patients with a particular outcome, without the use of a control group.

            (9) “Certification” or “certify” means a determination by a health insurance issuer or its designee utilization review organization that a request for a benefit under the health insurance issuer’s health benefit plan has been reviewed and, based on the information provided, satisfies the health insurance issuer’s requirements for medical necessity, appropriateness, health care setting, level of care, and effectiveness.

            (10) “Clinical peer” means a physician or other health care professional who holds a nonrestricted license in a state of the United States and in the same or similar specialty as typically manages the medical condition, procedure, or treatment under review.

            (11) “Clinical review criteria” means the written screening procedures, decision abstracts, clinical protocols, and practice guidelines used by the health insurance issuer to determine the medical necessity and appropriateness of health care services including those used in the determination of an item or health care service as experimental.

            (12) “Cohort study” means a prospective evaluation of two groups of patients with only one group of patients receiving a specific intervention or interventions.

            (13) “Commissioner” means the commissioner of insurance.

            (14) “Concurrent review” means utilization review conducted during a patient’s stay or course of treatment in a facility, the office of a health care professional, or other inpatient or outpatient health care setting.

            (15) “Covered benefits” or “benefits” means those health care services to which a covered person is entitled under the terms of a health benefit plan.

            (16) “Covered person” means a policyholder, subscriber, enrollee, or other individual participating in a health benefit plan.

            (17) “Discharge planning” means the formal process for determining, prior to discharge from a facility, the coordination and management of the care that a patient receives following discharge from a facility.

            (18) “Disclose” means to release, transfer, or otherwise divulge protected health information to any person other than the individual who is the subject of the protected health information.

            (19) “Emergency medical condition” means a medical condition manifesting itself by symptoms of sufficient severity, including severe pain, such that a prudent layperson, who possesses an average knowledge of health and medicine, could reasonably expect that the absence of immediate medical attention would result in serious impairment to bodily functions, serious dysfunction of a bodily organ or part, or would place the person’s health or, with respect to a pregnant woman, the health of the woman or her unborn child, in serious jeopardy.

            (20) “Emergency services” means health care items and services furnished or required to evaluate and treat an emergency medical condition.

            (21) “Evidence-based standard” means the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of the current best evidence based on the overall systematic review of the research in making decisions about the care of individual patients.

            (22) “Expert opinion” means a belief or an interpretation by specialists with experience in a specific area about the scientific evidence pertaining to a particular service, intervention, or therapy.

            (23) “Facility” means an institution providing health care services or a health care setting, including but not limited to hospitals and other licensed inpatient centers, ambulatory surgical or treatment centers, skilled nursing centers, residential treatment centers, diagnostic, laboratory and imaging centers, rehabilitation and other therapeutic health settings, and inpatient hospice facilities.

            (24) “Final adverse determination” means an adverse determination, including medical judgment, involving a covered benefit that has been upheld by a health insurance issuer, or its designee utilization review organization, at the completion of the health insurance issuer’s internal claims and appeals process procedures provided pursuant to La. Rev. Stat. 22:2401.

            (25) “Grievance” means, in a health insurance issuer’s internal claims and appeals process, a written complaint or oral complaint, if the complaint involves an urgent care request submitted by or on behalf of a covered person regarding any of the following:

            (a) Availability, delivery, or quality of health care services, including a complaint regarding an adverse determination made pursuant to utilization review.

            (b) Claims payment, handling, or reimbursement for health care services.

            (c) Matters pertaining to the contractual relationship between a covered person and a health insurance issuer.

            (26) “Health benefit plan” means a policy, contract, certificate, or agreement entered into, offered, or issued by a health insurance issuer to provide, deliver, arrange for, pay for, or reimburse any of the costs of health care services. “Health benefit plan” shall not include a plan providing coverage for excepted benefits as defined in La. Rev. Stat. 22:1061 and short-term policies that have a term of less than twelve months. Notwithstanding excepted benefits as defined in La. Rev. Stat. 22:1061, a “health benefit plan” subject to the provisions of Part III of this Chapter shall include dental insurance plans.

            (27) “Health care professional” means a physician or other health care practitioner licensed, accredited, registered, or certified to perform specified health care services consistent with state law.

            (28) “Health care provider” or “provider” means a health care professional or a facility.

            (29) “Health care services” means services for the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, cure, or relief of a health condition, illness, injury, or disease.

            (30) “Health information” means information or data, whether oral or recorded in any form or medium, and personal facts or information about events or relationships that relate to any of the following:

            (a) The past, present, or future physical, mental, or behavioral health or condition of an individual or a member of the individual’s family.

            (b) The provision of health care services to an individual.

            (c) Payment for the provision of health care services to an individual.

            (31) “Health insurance issuer” means an entity subject to the insurance laws and regulations of this state, or subject to the jurisdiction of the commissioner, that contracts or offers to contract to provide, deliver, arrange for, pay for, or reimburse any of the costs of health care services, including through a health benefit plan as defined in this Section, and shall include a sickness and accident insurance company, a health maintenance organization, a preferred provider organization or any similar entity, or any other entity providing a plan of health insurance or health benefits.

            (32) “Immediately” means as expeditiously as the medical situation of the covered person requires but in no event longer than one day for expedited reviews or one business day for standard reviews.

            (33) “Independent review organization” means an entity that conducts independent external reviews of adverse determinations and final adverse determinations.

            (34) “Medical or scientific evidence” means evidence found in the following sources:

            (a) Peer-reviewed scientific studies published in or accepted for publication by medical journals that meet nationally recognized requirements for scientific manuscripts and that submit most of their published articles for review by experts who are not part of the editorial staff.

            (b) Peer-reviewed medical literature, including literature relating to therapies reviewed and approved by a qualified institutional review board, biomedical compendia and other medical literature that meet the criteria of the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine for indexing in Index Medicus (Medline) and Elsevier Science Ltd. for indexing in Excerpta Medica (EMBASE).

            (c) Medical journals recognized by the secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services under Section 1861(t)(2) of the federal Social Security Act.

            (d) The following standard reference compendia:

            (i) The American Hospital Formulary Service-Drug Information.

            (ii) Drug Facts and Comparisons.

            (iii) The American Dental Association Guide to Dental Therapeutics.

            (iv) The United States Pharmacopeia-Drug Information.

            (e) Findings, studies, or research conducted by or under the auspices of federal government agencies and nationally recognized federal research institutes including:

            (i) The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

            (ii) The National Institutes of Health.

            (iii) The National Cancer Institute.

            (iv) The National Academy of Sciences.

            (v) The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

            (vi) The federal Food and Drug Administration.

            (vii) Any national board recognized by the National Institutes of Health for the purpose of evaluating the medical value of health care services.

            (f) Any other medical or scientific evidence that is comparable to the sources listed in Subparagraphs (a) through (e) of this Paragraph.

            (35) “NAIC” means the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

            (36) “Person” or “entity” means an individual, a corporation, a partnership, an association, a joint venture, a joint stock company, a trust, an unincorporated organization, any similar entity, or any combination of the foregoing.

            (37) “Prospective review” means utilization review conducted prior to an admission or the provision of a health care service or a course of treatment in accordance with a health insurance issuer’s requirement that the health care service or course of treatment, in whole or in part, be approved prior to its provision.

            (38) “Protected health information” means either of the following:

            (a) Health information that identifies an individual who is the subject of the information.

            (b) Health information with respect to which there is a reasonable basis to believe that the information could be used to identify an individual.

            (39) “Randomized clinical trial” means a controlled, prospective study of patients that have been randomized into an experimental group and a control group at the beginning of the study with only the experimental group of patients receiving a specific intervention, which includes study of the groups for variables and anticipated outcomes over time.

            (40) “Rescission” means cancellation or discontinuance of coverage under a health benefit plan that has a retroactive effect. The term shall not include a cancellation or discontinuance of coverage under a health benefit plan if either:

            (a) The cancellation or discontinuance of coverage has only a prospective effect.

            (b) The cancellation or discontinuance of coverage is effective retroactively to the extent that it is attributable to a failure to timely pay required premiums or contributions towards the cost of coverage.

            (41) “Retrospective review” means a utilization review conducted after services have been provided to a patient, but does not include the review of a claim that is limited to an evaluation of reimbursement levels, veracity of documentation, accuracy of coding, or adjudication for payment.

            (42) “Second opinion” means an opportunity or requirement to obtain a clinical evaluation by a provider other than the one originally making a recommendation for a proposed health care service to assess the clinical or medical necessity and appropriateness of the initial proposed health care service.

            (43) “Urgent care request” means:

            (a) A request for a health care service or course of treatment with respect to which the time periods for making a non-urgent care request determination either:

            (i) Could seriously jeopardize the life or health of the covered person or the ability of the covered person to regain maximum function.

            (ii) Would, in the opinion of a physician with knowledge of the covered person’s medical condition, subject the covered person to severe pain that cannot be adequately managed without the health care service or treatment that is the subject of the request.

            (b)(i) Except as provided in Item (ii) of this Subparagraph, in determining whether a request is to be treated as an urgent care request, an individual acting on behalf of the health insurance issuer shall apply the judgment of a prudent layperson who possesses an average knowledge of health and medicine.

            (ii) Any request that a physician with knowledge of the covered person’s medical condition determines is an urgent care request within the meaning of Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph shall be treated as an urgent care request.

            (44) “Utilization review” means a set of formal techniques designed to monitor the use of or evaluate the clinical or medical necessity, appropriateness, efficacy, or efficiency of health care services, procedures, or settings. Techniques may include ambulatory review, prospective review, second opinion, certification, concurrent review, case management, discharge planning, or retrospective review.

            (45) “Utilization review organization” means a licensed entity that conducts utilization review in the internal claims and appeals process provided pursuant to La. Rev. Stat. 22:2401.

            Acts 2013, No. 326, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2015; Acts 2021, No. 89, §1, eff. June 4, 2021.