H. B. 2730
(By Delegates R. M. Thompson, Staton, Mezzatesta,
Leach, Perdue, Compton and Douglas)
[Introduced
March 5, 2001
; referred to the
Committee on Banking and Insurance then Finance.]
A BILL to amend article fifteen, chapter thirty-three of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
four-g, relating to the minimum hospital care to be provided
breast cancer patients for mastectomy procedures by insurers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article fifteen, chapter thirty-three of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section four-g,
to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. ACCIDENT AND SICKNESS INSURANCE.
§33-15-4g. Hospital benefit for mastectomy procedures.
Each insurer offering individual or group accident and sickness insurance policies providing hospital, medical and
surgical, or major medical coverage on an expense-incurred basis;
each corporation providing individual or group accident and
sickness subscription contracts; and each health maintenance
organization providing a health care plan for health care services
shall provide coverage providing a minimum stay in the hospital of
not less than forty-eight hours for a patient following a radical
or modified radical mastectomy and not less than twenty-four hours
of inpatient care following a total mastectomy or partial
mastectomy with lymph node dissection for the treatment for breast
cancer. Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring
the provision of inpatient coverage where the attending physician
in consultation with the patient determines that a shorter period
of hospital stay is appropriate. This provision shall be included
under any policy, contract or plan delivered, issued for delivery
or renewed on or after the first day of July, two thousand one.
The provisions of this section do not apply to short-term
travel, accident only, limited or specified disease policies,
policies or contracts designed for issuance to persons eligible for
coverage under Medicare or any other similar coverage under state
or federal governmental plans, or to short-term nonrenewable policies of not more than six months' duration.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require insurance
coverage for a reasonable period of inpatient care following
mastectomy surgery.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.