1. A health care plan of a health maintenance organization must provide coverage for benefits payable for expenses incurred for a mammogram every 2 years, or annually if ordered by a provider of health care, for women 40 years of age or older.

2. A health maintenance organization must ensure that the benefits required by subsection 1 are made available to an enrollee through a provider of health care who participates in the network plan of the health maintenance organization.

3. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 5, a health maintenance organization that offers or issues a health care plan shall not:

(a) Require an enrollee to pay a higher deductible, any copayment or coinsurance or require a longer waiting period or other condition to obtain any benefit provided in the health care plan pursuant to subsection 1;

(b) Refuse to issue a health care plan or cancel a health care plan solely because the person applying for or covered by the plan uses or may use any such benefit;

(c) Offer or pay any type of material inducement or financial incentive to an enrollee to discourage the enrollee from obtaining any benefit provided in the health care plan pursuant to subsection 1;

(d) Penalize a provider of health care who provides any such benefit to an enrollee, including, without limitation, reducing the reimbursement of the provider of health care;

(e) Offer or pay any type of material inducement, bonus or other financial incentive to a provider of health care to deny, reduce, withhold, limit or delay access to any such benefit to an enrollee; or

(f) Impose any other restrictions or delays on the access of an enrollee to any such benefit.

4. A health care plan subject to the provisions of this chapter which is delivered, issued for delivery or renewed on or after January 1, 2018, has the legal effect of including the coverage required by subsection 1, and any provision of the plan or the renewal which is in conflict with this section is void.

5. Except as otherwise provided in this section and federal law, a health maintenance organization may use medical management techniques, including, without limitation, any available clinical evidence, to determine the frequency of or treatment relating to any benefit required by this section or the type of provider of health care to use for such treatment.

6. As used in this section:

(a) “Medical management technique” means a practice which is used to control the cost or utilization of health care services or prescription drug use. The term includes, without limitation, the use of step therapy, prior authorization or categorizing drugs and devices based on cost, type or method of administration.

(b) “Network plan” means a health care plan offered by a health maintenance organization under which the financing and delivery of medical care, including items and services paid for as medical care, are provided, in whole or in part, through a defined set of providers under contract with the health maintenance organization. The term does not include an arrangement for the financing of premiums.

(c) “Provider of health care” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 629.031.

(Added to NRS by 1989, 1891; A 1997, 1730; 2017, 1849)