Grievance and Appeals Unit See Section 9 for contact information. You may also contact the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner’s Consumer Resource Program, RIREACH at 1-855-747-3224 about questions or concerns you may have. Complaints A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with any aspect of our operation or the quality of care you received from a healthcare provider. A complaint is not an appeal. For information about submitting an appeal, please see the Reconsiderations and Appeals section below. We encourage you to discuss any concerns or issues you may have about any aspect of your medical treatment with the healthcare provider that furnished the care. In most cases, issues can be more easily resolved if they are raised when they occur. However, if you remain dissatisfied or prefer not to take up the issue with your provider, you can call our Customer Service Department for further assistance. You may also call our Customer Service Department if you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our operation. If the concern or issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may file a verbal or written complaint with our Grievance and Appeals Unit. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint or administrative appeal within ten (10) business days. The Grievance and Appeals Unit will conduct a thorough review of your complaint and respond within thirty (30) calendar days of the date it was received. The determination letter will provide you with the rationale for our response as well as information on any possible next steps available to you. When filing a complaint, please provide the following information: • your name, address, member ID number; • the date of the incident or service; • summary of the issue; • any previous contact with BCBSRI concerning the issue; • a brief description of the relief or solution you are seeking; and • additional information such as referral forms, claims, or any other documentation that you would like us to review. Please send all information to the address listed on the Contact Information section.
Review and Appeal (a) Each Party shall establish or maintain judicial, quasi-judicial, or administrative tribunals or procedures for the purpose of the prompt review and, where warranted, correction of final administrative actions regarding matters covered by this Treaty. Such tribunals shall be impartial and independent of the office or authority entrusted with administrative enforcement and shall not have any substantial interest in the outcome of the matter.
Appeals Process A. The Contractor’s appeal process shall, at a minimum:
Benefit Level Two Health Care Network Determination Issues regarding the health care networks for the 2017 insurance year shall be negotiated in accordance with the following procedures:
Claims Review Objective A clear statement of the objective intended to be achieved by the Claims Review.
Your Grievance and Appeals Rights If you have a complaint or are dissatisfied with a denial of coverage for claims under your plan, you may be able to appeal or file a grievance. For questions about your rights, this notice, or assistance, you can contact your state insurance department at (000) 000-0000 or by email at XxxxxxXxxXxxxxxx@xxxx.xx.xxx, the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration at 0-000-000-0000 or xxx.xxx.xxx/xxxx, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at 0-000-000-0000 x00000 or xxx.xxxxx.xxx.xxx. Does this Coverage Provide Minimum Essential Coverage? The Affordable Care Act requires most people to have health care coverage that qualifies as “minimum essential coverage.” This plan or policy does provide minimum essential coverage. Does this Coverage Meet the Minimum Value Standard? The Affordable Care Act establishes a minimum value standard of benefits of a health plan. The minimum value standard is 60% (actuarial value). This health coverage does meet the minimum value standard for the benefits it provides. Language Access Services: Para obtener asistencia en Español, llame al 0-000-000-0000. Kung kailangan ninyo ang tulong sa Tagalog tumawag sa 0-000-000-0000. 如果需要中文的帮助，请拨打这个号码 0-000-000-0000. Dinek'ehgo shika at'ohwol ninisingo, kwiijigo holne' 0-000-000-0000. ––––––––––––––––––––––To see examples of how this plan might cover costs for a sample medical situation, see the next page.–––––––––––––––––––––– About these Coverage Examples: These examples show how this plan might cover medical care in given situations. Use these examples to see, in general, how much financial protection a sample patient might get if they are covered under different plans. This is not a cost estimator. Don’t use these examples to estimate your actual costs under this plan. The actual care you receive will be different from these examples, and the cost of that care will also be different. See the next page for important information about these examples. Having a baby (normal delivery) ◼ Amount owed to providers: $7,540 ◼ Plan pays $7,490 ◼ Patient pays $50 Sample care costs: Hospital charges (mother) $2,700 Routine obstetric care $2,100 Hospital charges (baby) $900 Anesthesia $900 Laboratory tests $500 Prescriptions $200 Radiology $200 Vaccines, other preventive $40 Total $7,540 Patient pays: Deductibles $0 Copays $20 Coinsurance $0 Limits or exclusions $30 Total $50 Managing type 2 diabetes (routine maintenance of a well-controlled condition) ◼ Amount owed to providers: $5,400 ◼ Plan pays $4,760 ◼ Patient pays $640 Sample care costs: Prescriptions $2,900 Medical Equipment and Supplies $1,300 Office Visits and Procedures $700 Education $300 Laboratory tests $100 Vaccines, other preventive $100 Total $5,400 Patient pays: Deductibles $0 Copays $300 Coinsurance $300 Limits or exclusions $40 Total $640 These examples are based on coverage for an individual plan. Questions and answers about the Coverage Examples: What are some of the assumptions behind the Coverage Examples? • Costs don’t include premiums. • Sample care costs are based on national averages supplied by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and aren’t specific to a particular geographic area or health plan. • The patient’s condition was not an excluded or preexisting condition. • All services and treatments started and ended in the same coverage period. • There are no other medical expenses for any member covered under this plan. • Out-of-pocket expenses are based only on treating the condition in the example. • The patient received all care from in- network providers. If the patient had received care from out-of-network providers, costs would have been higher. What does a Coverage Example show? For each treatment situation, the Coverage Example helps you see how deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance can add up. It also helps you see what expenses might be left up to you to pay because the service or treatment isn’t covered or payment is limited. Does the Coverage Example predict my own care needs?
Plan Arrangements Eligibility – Claim Types All claim types are eligible to be processed through Inter-Plan Arrangements, as described above, except for all dental benefits, and those prescription drug benefits or vision benefits that may be administered by a third party contracted by us to provide the specific service or services. BlueCard® Program Under the BlueCard® Program, when you receive covered healthcare services within the geographic area served by a Host Blue, BCBSRI will remain responsible for doing what we agreed to in the contract. However, the Host Blue is responsible for contracting with and generally handling all interactions with its participating providers. When you receive covered healthcare services outside our service area and the claim is processed through the BlueCard Program, the amount you pay for covered healthcare services is calculated based on the lower of: • the billed covered charges for your covered services; or • the negotiated price that the Host Blue makes available to BCBSRI. Often, this “negotiated price” will be a simple discount that reflects an actual price that the Host Blue pays to your healthcare provider. Sometimes, it is an estimated price that takes into account special arrangements with your healthcare provider or provider group that may include types of settlements, incentive payments and/or other credits or charges. Occasionally, it may be an average price, based on a discount that results in expected average savings for similar types of healthcare providers after taking into account the same types of transactions as with an estimated price. Estimated pricing and average pricing also take into account adjustments to correct for over- or underestimation of past pricing of claims, as noted above. However, such adjustments will not affect the price we have used for your claim because they will not be applied after a claim has already been paid. Negotiated (non–BlueCard Program) Arrangements With respect to one or more Host Blues, in certain instances, instead of using the BlueCard Program, we may process your claims for covered healthcare services through Negotiated Arrangements for National Accounts. The amount you pay for covered healthcare services under this arrangement will be calculated based on the negotiated price (refer to the description of negotiated price in the BlueCard® Program section above) made available to us by the Host Blue.
Adverse Benefit Determination An adverse benefit determination is any of the following: Denial of a benefit (in whole or part), Reduction of a benefit, Termination of a benefit, Failure to provide or make a payment (in whole or in part) for a benefit, and Rescission of coverage, even if there is no adverse effect on any benefit. An appeal of an adverse benefit determination can be made either as an administrative appeal or as a medical appeal, as defined further in this section. Our Customer Service Department phone number is (000) 000-0000 or 0-000-000-0000.
Appeals Procedure If Employee appeals to the Administrator, Employee or his authorized representative may submit in writing whatever issues and comments he believes to be pertinent. The Administrator shall reexamine all facts related to the appeal and make a final determination of whether the denial of benefits is justified under the circumstances. The Administrator shall advise Employee in writing of:
Claims Process (1) In order to seek payment from the Settlement Amount, a Class Member must submit a completed Claim Form to the Administrator, in accordance with the provisions of the Plan of Allocation, on or before the Claims Bar Deadline and any Class Member who fails to do so shall not share in any distribution made in accordance with the Plan of Allocation unless the relevant court orders otherwise as provided in section 18.4.
