Notwithstanding any provisions in policies or contracts which might be construed to the contrary, all individual, group, or blanket policies of accident and sickness insurance and individual or group service contracts or by health care corporations which are issued, delivered, issued for delivery, amended, or renewed in this state and which provide coverage for services which are within the lawful scope of practice of an athletic trainer qualified pursuant to Code Section 43-5-8 shall be deemed to provide that any person covered under such policies or contracts shall be entitled to receive reimbursement for services under such policies or contracts regardless of whether such services are rendered by a duly licensed doctor of medicine or by an athletic trainer qualified pursuant to Code Section 43-5-8.Nothing contained in this Code section shall require an insurer to offer such coverage.
(Code 1981, §33-24-27.2, enacted by Ga. L. 1999, p. 327, § 2; Ga. L. 2013, p. 141, § 33/HB 79; Ga. L. 2019, p. 386, § 41/SB 133; Ga. L. 2020, p. 493, § 33/SB 429.)
The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, deleted the subsection (a) designation; in the first sentence of this Code section, deleted "from and after July 1, 1999," following "to the contrary," near the middle, deleted "or indemnity" following "or group service", and deleted "issued by nonprofit corporations" preceding "or by health care corporations" in the middle; and deleted former subsection (b), which read: "This Code section shall not be construed so as to impair the obligation of any policy or contract which is in existence prior to July 1, 1999."
The 2020 amendment, effective July 29, 2020, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted "Code section" for "subsection" in the last sentence of this Code section.
Cross references.- Contents of individual accident and sickness insurance policies, T. 33, C. 29. Contents of group or blanket accident and sickness insurance, T. 33, C. 30.
Code Commission notes.- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1999, in the last sentence of this Code section, "insurer" was substituted for "insurance".