VERIFICATION.

(a) In this section, "verification" means a reliable representation by a health maintenance organization to a physician or provider that the health maintenance organization will pay the physician or provider for proposed health care services if the physician or provider renders those services to the patient for whom the services are proposed. The term includes precertification, certification, recertification, and any other term that would be a reliable representation by a health maintenance organization to a physician or provider and includes preauthorization only when preauthorization is a condition for the verification.

(b) On the request of a physician or provider for verification of a particular health care service the participating physician or provider proposes to provide to a particular patient, the health maintenance organization shall inform the physician or provider without delay whether the service, if provided to that patient, will be paid by the health maintenance organization and shall specify any deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance for which the enrollee is responsible.

(c) A health maintenance organization shall have appropriate personnel reasonably available at a toll-free telephone number to provide a verification under this section between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. central time Monday through Friday on each day that is not a legal holiday and between 9 a.m. and noon central time on Saturday, Sunday, and legal holidays. A health maintenance organization must have a telephone system capable of accepting or recording incoming phone calls for verifications after 6 p.m. central time Monday through Friday and after noon central time on Saturday, Sunday, and legal holidays and responding to each of those calls on or before the second calendar day after the date the call is received.

(d) A health maintenance organization may decline to determine eligibility for payment if the insurer notifies the physician or preferred provider who requested the verification of the specific reason the determination was not made.

(e) A health maintenance organization may establish a specific period during which the verification is valid of not less than 30 days.

(f) A health maintenance organization that declines to provide a verification shall notify the physician or provider who requested the verification of the specific reason the verification was not provided.

(g) If a health maintenance organization has provided a verification for proposed health care services, the health maintenance organization may not deny or reduce payment to the physician or provider for those health care services if provided to the enrollee on or before the 30th day after the date the verification was provided unless the physician or provider has materially misrepresented the proposed health care services or has substantially failed to perform the proposed health care services.

(h) A health maintenance organization providing routine vision services as a single health care service plan or providing dental health care services as a single health care service plan is not required to comply with Subsection (c) with respect to those services. For purposes of this subsection, "routine vision services" means a routine annual or biennial eye examination to determine ocular health and refractive conditions that may include provision of glasses or contact lenses.

(i) A health maintenance organization described by Subsection (h) shall:

(1) have appropriate personnel reasonably available at a toll-free telephone number to provide a verification under this section between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. central time Monday through Friday on each day that is not a legal holiday;

(2) have a telephone system capable of accepting or recording incoming phone calls for verifications after 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and all day on Saturday, Sunday, and legal holidays; and

(3) respond to calls accepted or recorded on the telephone system described by Subdivision (2) not later than the next business day after the date the call is received.