Sec. 1301.133.  VERIFICATION.  (a)  In this section, "verification" includes preauthorization only when preauthorization is a condition for the verification.
(b)  On the request of a preferred provider for verification of a particular medical care or health care service the preferred provider proposes to provide to a particular patient, the insurer shall inform the preferred provider without delay whether the service, if provided to that patient, will be paid by the insurer and shall specify any deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance for which the insured is responsible.
(c)  An insurer 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.  An insurer 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)  An insurer 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)  An insurer may establish a specific period during which the verification is valid of not less than 30 days.
(f)  An insurer 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 an insurer has provided a verification for proposed medical care or health care services, the insurer may not deny or reduce payment to the physician or provider for those medical care or health care services if provided to the insured on or before the 30th day after the date the verification was provided unless the physician or provider has materially misrepresented the proposed medical care or health care services or has substantially failed to perform the proposed medical care or health care services.
(h)  The provisions of this section may not be waived, voided, or nullified by contract.
Added by Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 728 (H.B. 2018), Sec. 11.037(b), eff. September 1, 2005.