Washington § 48.43.039 - Grace period — Notification or information — Information concerning delinquencies or nonpayment of premiums — Defined.

(1) For an enrollee who is in the second or third month of the grace period, an issuer of a qualified health plan shall:

(a) Upon request by a health care provider or health care facility, provide information regarding the enrollee's eligibility status in real time;

(b) Notify a health care provider or health care facility that an enrollee is in the grace period within three business days after submittal of a claim or status request for services provided; and

(c) If the health care provider or health care facility is providing care to an enrollee in the grace period, the provider or facility shall, wherever possible, encourage the enrollee to pay delinquent premiums to the issuer and provide information regarding the impact of nonpayment of premiums on access to services.

(2) The information or notification required under subsection (1) of this section must, at a minimum:

(a) Indicate "grace period" or use the appropriate national coding standard as the reason for pending the claim if a claim is pended due to the enrollee's grace period status; and

(b) Except for notifications provided electronically, indicate that enrollee is in the second or third month of the grace period.

(3) No earlier than January 1, 2016, and once the exchange has terminated premium aggregation functionality for qualified health plans offered in the individual exchange and issuers are accepting all payments from enrollees directly, an issuer of a qualified health plan shall:

(a) For an enrollee in the grace period, include a statement in a delinquency notice that concisely explains the impact of nonpayment of premiums on access to coverage and health care services and encourages the enrollee to contact the issuer regarding coverage options that may be available;

(b) For an enrollee who has exhausted the grace period, include a statement in a termination notice for nonpayment of premium informing the enrollee that other coverage options such as medicaid may be available and to contact the issuer or the exchange for additional information; and

(c) For a delinquency notice described in this subsection, include concise information on how a subsidized enrollee may report to the exchange a change in income or circumstances, including any deadline for doing so, and an explanation that it may result in a change in premium or cost-sharing amount or program eligibility.

(4) Upon the transfer of premium collection to the qualified health plan, each qualified health plan must provide detailed reports to the exchange to support the legislative reporting requirements.

(5) For purposes of this section, "grace period" means nonpayment of premiums by an enrollee receiving advance payments of the premium tax credit, as defined in section 1412 of the patient protection and affordable care act, P.L. 111-148, as amended by the health care and education reconciliation act, P.L. 111-152, and implementing regulations issued by the federal department of health and human services.

Contingent effective date—2014 c 84 s 3: "Section 3 of this act takes effect January 1st following the issuance of a report under section 2(3) of this act indicating that coverage was terminated due to nonpayment of premium for ten thousand or more enrollees who were in the grace period in that calendar year. In no case may section 3 of this act take effect before January 1, 2015. The health benefit exchange must provide notice of the effective date of section 3 of this act to affected parties, the chief clerk of the house of representatives, the secretary of the senate, the office of the code reviser, and others as deemed appropriate by the health benefit exchange." [ 2014 c 84 s 4.] The health benefit exchange issued a report meeting the contingency requirements of this section on December 1, 2014; therefore, the effective date of section 3, chapter 84, Laws of 2014 is January 1, 2015.