relative to insurance payments to ambulance providers.

This bill requires health insurance companies to pay ambulance service providers directly for medically necessary emergency transport, rather than reimbursing patients who must then pay the providers. The law applies to both individual and group health insurance plans and allows insurers to continue negotiating specific reimbursement rates with non-participating ambulance companies. Insurers may still issue checks to patients if they choose, but direct payment to the provider becomes the standard method. The changes take effect on September 1, 2024.