Utilization management
See bold sections below:
A. Utilization management program: The health care insurer through its MHCP shall establish and implement a comprehensive utilization management program to monitor access to and appropriate utilization of health care services. The program shall be under the direction of a medical director responsible for the medical services provided by the MHCP in New Mexico and who is a licensed physician in New Mexico, and shall be based on a written plan that is reviewed at least annually. At a minimum, the plan shall identify the following:
(1) scope of utilization management activities;
(2) procedures to evaluate clinical necessity, access, appropriateness, and efficiency of services;
(3) mechanisms to detect underutilization and overutilization;
(4) clinical review criteria and protocols used in decision-making;
(5) mechanisms to ensure consistent application of review criteria and uniform decisions;
(6) development of outcome and process measures for evaluating the utilization management program; and
(7) a mechanism to evaluate member and provider satisfaction with the complaint and appeals systems set forth at 13.10.17 NMAC; such evaluation shall be coordinated with the performance monitoring activities conducted pursuant to the continuous quality improvement program to include care coordination between utilization management, case management and disease management services as set forth in 13.10.22.10 NMAC.
U.R. Criteria
B. Utilization management determinations shall be based on written clinical criteria and protocols developed with involvement from practicing physicians and other health professionals and providers within the MHCP’s net network. These criteria and protocols shall be periodically reviewed and updated, and shall, with the exception of internal or proprietary quantitative thresholds for utilization management, be readily available, upon request, to affected providers and covered persons. The MHCP shall have the burden of showing that information requested by affected providers or covered persons is in fact proprietary. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a MHCP from incorporating into its clinical protocols criteria from outside sources.
C. Utilization management staff availability:
(1) A registered professional nurse or physician shall be immediately available by telephone seven days a week, 24 hours a day, to render utilization management determinations for providers.
(2) The MHCP shall provide all covered persons and providers with a toll-free telephone number by which to contact utilization management staff on at least a five-day, 40 hours a week basis. The MHCP may provide a separate telephone number for covered persons and for providers.
(3) All covered persons must have immediate telephone access seven days a week, 24 hours a day, to their primary care physician or the physician’s authorized on-call back-up provider. When these providers are unavailable, a registered nurse or physician on the utilization management staff must be available to respond to inquiries concerning emergency or urgent care.
D. Utilization management determinations:
(1) All determinations to authorize an admission, service, procedure or extension of stay shall be rendered by either a physician, registered professional nurse, or other qualified health professional.
(2) All determinations to deny or limit an admission, service, procedure or extension of stay shall be rendered by a physician, either after application of uniform criteria established by the plan in consultation with specialists acting within the scope of their license or after consultation with specialists acting within the scope of their license. The physician shall be under the clinical direction of the medical director responsible for medical services provided to the MHCP’s New Mexico covered persons. Such determinations shall be made in accordance with clinical and medically necessary criteria developed pursuant to Subsection A of 13.10.22.9 NMAC and the evidence of coverage.
Medical Necessity Decisions-Deadlines
(3) All determinations shall be made on a timely basis as required by the exigencies of the situation and in accordance with sound medical principles, which, in any event, shall not exceed 24 hours for emergency care and seven days for all other determinations. If the MHCP is unable to complete a referral within ten days due to unforeseen circumstances, the MHCP shall inform the covered person in writing about the reasons for the delay and when a decision may be expected.
Retroactive Denial
(4) A MHCP may not retroactively deny reimbursement for a covered service provided to a covered person by a provider who relied upon the verbal or written authorization of the MHCP or its agents prior to providing the service to the covered person, except in those cases where there was material misrepresentation or fraud. Retroactive reimbursement for a covered service shall not be denied when the covered person provides authorization information, such as a MHCP referral number, directly to the provider, except in those cases where there was material misrepresentation or fraud.
(5) An enrollee must receive a written notice of all determinations to deny coverage or authorization for health care services, which shall contain the reasons why coverage or authorization was denied, and which shall be subject to review in accordance with the specific grievance procedures outlined in 13.10.17 NMAC. The written notice shall advise the covered person that review of the MHCP’s denial of coverage or authorization is available. In addition, the notice shall describe the procedures necessary for commencing an internal review as outlined in 13.10.17 NMAC.
E. Accreditation by nationally recognized accrediting entity. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a MHCP from submitting accreditation by a nationally recognized accrediting entity as evidence of compliance with the requirements of this section. In those instances where a MHCP seeks to meet the requirements of this section through accreditation by a private accrediting entity, the MHCP shall submit to the division the following information: 1) current standards of the private accrediting entity in order to demonstrate that the entity’s standards meet or exceed the requirements of this rule; 2) documentation from the private accrediting entity showing that the MHCP has been accredited by the entity; and 3) a summary of the data and information that was presented to the private accrediting entity by the MHCP and upon which accreditation of the MHCP was based. A MHCP accredited by the private accrediting entity that has submitted all of the requisite information to the division may then be deemed by the superintendent to have met the requirements of the relevant provisions of this section where comparable standards exist, provided that the private accrediting entity from which the MHCP obtained accreditation is recognized and approved by the superintendent.