Telephone visits.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law prohibits a health care service plan or health insurer from requiring in-person contact between a health care provider and a patient before payment is made for covered services appropriately provided through telehealth, which is defined to mean the mode of delivering health care services via information and communication technologies, as specified. This bill would require a health care service plan or a health insurer, with respect to contracts and policies issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2016, to cover telephone visits, as defined, provided by a contracted physician or a contracted qualified nonphysician health care provider. The bill would provide that a health care service plan or a health insurer is not required to reimburse separately for specified telephone visits, including a telephone visit provided as part of a bundle of services reimbursed in a specified manner. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.