As used in the Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act:

1. "Agent" means any individual, corporation, association, partnership, or other legal entity authorized to represent an insurer with respect to a claim;

2. "Claimant" means either a first party claimant, a third party claimant, or both, and includes such claimant's designated legal representatives and includes a member of the claimant's immediate family designated by the claimant;

3. "Commissioner" means the Insurance Commissioner;

4. "First-party claimant" means an individual, corporation, association, partnership, or other legal entity, including a subscriber under any plan providing health services, asserting a right to payment pursuant to an insurance policy or insurance contract for an occurrence of contingency or loss covered by such policy or contract;

5. "Health benefit plan" means group hospital or medical insurance coverage, a not-for-profit hospital or medical service or indemnity plan, a prepaid health plan, a health maintenance organization plan, a preferred provider organization plan, the State and Education Employees Group Health Insurance Plan, and coverage provided by a Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement (MEWA) or employee self-insured plan except as exempt under federal ERISA provisions. The term shall not include short-term accident, fixed indemnity, or specified disease policies, disability income contracts, limited benefit or credit disability insurance, workers' compensation insurance coverage, automobile medical payment insurance, or insurance under which benefits are payable with or without regard to fault and which is required by law to be contained in any liability insurance policy or equivalent self-insurance;

6. "Insurance policy or insurance contract" means any contract of insurance, certificate, indemnity, medical or hospital service, suretyship, annuity, subscriber certificate or any evidence of coverage of a health maintenance organization issued, proposed for issuance, or intended for issuance by any entity subject to this Code;

7. "Insurer" means a person licensed by the Commissioner to issue or who issues any insurance policy or insurance contract in this state and also includes health maintenance organizations. Provided that, for the purposes of paragraphs 15 and 16 of Section 1250.5 of this title, "insurer" shall include the State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board;

8. "Investigation" means all activities of an insurer directly or indirectly related to the determination of liabilities under coverages afforded by an insurance policy or insurance contract;

9. "Notification of claim" means any notification, whether in writing or other means acceptable under the terms of an insurance policy or insurance contract, to an insurer or its agent, by a claimant, which reasonably apprises the insurer of the facts pertinent to a claim;

10. "Preauthorization/precertification" means a determination by a health benefit plan, based on the information presented at the time by the health care provider, that health care services proposed by the health care provider are medically necessary. The term shall include "authorization", "certification" and any other term that would be a reliable determination by a health benefit plan. A preauthorization/precertification from a previous health plan shall not bind a succeeding health benefit plan;

11. "Third-party claimant" means any individual, corporation, association, partnership, or other legal entity asserting a claim against any individual, corporation, association, partnership, or other legal entity insured under an insurance policy or insurance contract; and

12. "Verification of eligibility" means a representation by a health benefit plan to a health care provider that a claimant is entitled to covered benefits under the policy. Such verification of eligibility shall be valid for four (4) business days from the date given by the health benefit plan.

Added by Laws 1986, c. 251, § 14, eff. Nov. 1, 1986. Amended by Laws 1994, c. 342, § 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. Renumbered from § 1252 of this title by Laws 1994, c. 342, § 20, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. Amended by Laws 1994, 2nd Ex. Sess., c. 1, § 4, emerg. eff. Nov. 4, 1994; Laws 2003, c. 197, § 53, eff. Nov. 1, 2003; Laws 2004, c. 274, § 7, eff. July 1, 2004; Laws 2005, c. 170, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2005; Laws 2009, c. 323, § 1, eff. July 1, 2010; Laws 2013, c. 254, § 19, eff. Jan. 1, 2015.