OIC Releases Draft Rule on Continued Implementation of Balance Billing Protection Act

On September 23, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) released its CR102 draft rule detailing related to the Balance Billing Protection Act (BBPA) /Surprise Billing law. The draft rule provides clarification and detail regarding requirements of providers, carriers, and electing self-funded groups under the BBPA. WSHA has been actively involved in the stakeholder draft process and was able to obtain needed modifications to the earlier stakeholder drafts. At WSHA’s request, OIC extended the time period for hospitals to provide patients with the required notice of consumer rights following emergency services from the 48-hour period in the stakeholder draft to 72 hours. The draft rule also clarifies that providers within a group under the same tax ID number can aggregate like claims for arbitration purposes. The OIC will accept written comments on the draft rule through October 26 and will conduct a public Zoom hearing on October 27. Additional details are on the OIC website. (Andrew Busz, andrewb@wsha.org)