(1) The office of the insurance commissioner shall contract with the state agency responsible for administration of the database and the lead organization to establish a data set and business process to provide health carriers, health care providers, hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities, and arbitrators with data to assist in determining commercially reasonable payments and resolving payment disputes for out-of-network medical services rendered by health care facilities or providers.
(a) The data set and business process must be developed in collaboration with health carriers, health care providers, hospitals, and ambulatory surgical facilities.
(b) The data set must provide the amounts for the services described in RCW 48.49.020. The data used to calculate the median in-network and out-of-network allowed amounts and the median billed charge amounts by geographic area, for the same or similar services, must be drawn from commercial health plan claims, and exclude medicare and medicaid claims as well as claims paid on other than a fee-for-service basis.
(c) The data set and business process must be available beginning November 1, 2019, and must be reviewed by an advisory committee established under chapter 43.371 RCW that includes representatives of health carriers, health care providers, hospitals, and ambulatory surgical facilities for validation before use.
(2) The 2019 data set must be based upon the most recently available full calendar year of claims data. The data set for each subsequent year must be adjusted by applying the consumer price index-medical component established by the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics to the previous year's data set.
[ 2019 c 427 § 26.]
NOTES:
Findings—Intent—Effective date—2019 c 427: See RCW 48.49.003 and 48.49.900.