A. After January 1, 2014, a health maintenance organization shall accept the uniform prior authorization form developed pursuant to Sections 2 [ 59A-2-9.8 NMSA 1978] and 3 [ 61-11-6.2 NMSA 1978] of this 2013 act as sufficient to request prior authorization for prescription drug benefits.
B. No later than twenty-four months after the adoption of national standards for electronic prior authorization, a health insurer shall exchange prior authorization requests with providers who have e-prescribing capability.
C. If a health maintenance organization fails to use or accept the uniform prior authorization form or fails to respond within three business days upon receipt of a uniform prior authorization form, the prior authorization request shall be deemed to have been granted.
D. As used in this section, "health maintenance organization":
(1) means:
(a) a health maintenance organization; or
(b) a managed care organization; and
(2) does not include:
(a) a person that delivers, issues for delivery or renews an individual policy intended to supplement major medical group-type coverages such as medicare supplement, long-term care, disability income, specified disease, accident-only, hospital indemnity or other limited-benefit health insurance policy;
(b) a physician or a physician group to which a health maintenance organization has delegated financial risk for prescription drugs and that does not use a prior authorization process for prescription drugs; or
(c) a health maintenance organization or its affiliated providers if the health maintenance organization owns and operates its pharmacies and does not use a prior authorization process.