Disagreements with Other Insurers

Not all insurers operate under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) or California Department of Insurance (CDI). In some instances, insurers do not operate under any legal authority at all regarding coordination of benefits (COB). For this reason, hospitals may encounter insurers, administrators and others who would ordinarily be the primary carrier but refuse to pay. There is no practical recourse if they have different rules in their state or are a self-funded plan.

When disagreements arise with insurers due to differences in applicable law, abides by the rules employed by the state in which the other insurer operates. For self-funded plans, the plan abides by the conditions in the self-funded plan's evidence of coverage. After dealing with the immediate matter of providing or paying for a covered service, the hospital can still make an effort to recover payment from the other insurer.