2011 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 59A: Insurance Code
Article 57: Patient Protection, 59A-57-1 through 59A-57-11
Section 59A-57-3: Definitions.

59A-57-3. Definitions.

As used in the Patient Protection Act:

A. "continuous quality improvement" means an ongoing and systematic effort to measure, evaluate and improve a managed health care plan's process in order to improve continually the quality of health care services provided to enrollees;

B. "covered person", "enrollee", "patient" or "consumer" means an individual who is entitled to receive health care benefits provided by a managed health care plan;

C. "department" means the insurance department;

D. "emergency care" means health care procedures, treatments or services delivered to a covered person after the sudden onset of what reasonably appears to be a medical condition that manifests itself by symptoms of sufficient severity, including severe pain, that the absence of immediate medical attention could be reasonably expected by a reasonable layperson to result in jeopardy to a person's health, serious impairment of bodily functions, serious dysfunction of a bodily organ or part or disfigurement to a person;

E. "health care facility" means an institution providing health care services, including a hospital or other licensed inpatient center; an ambulatory surgical or treatment center; a skilled nursing center; a residential treatment center; a home health agency; a diagnostic, laboratory or imaging center; and a rehabilitation or other therapeutic health setting;

F. "health care insurer" means a person that has a valid certificate of authority in good standing under the Insurance Code [59A-1-1 NMSA 1978] to act as an insurer, health maintenance organization, nonprofit health care plan or prepaid dental plan;

G. "health care professional" means a physician or other health care practitioner, including a pharmacist, who is licensed, certified or otherwise authorized by the state to provide health care services consistent with state law;

H. "health care provider" or "provider" means a person that is licensed or otherwise authorized by the state to furnish health care services and includes health care professionals and health care facilities;

I. "health care services" includes, to the extent offered by the plan, physical health or community-based mental health or developmental disability services, including services for developmental delay;

J. "managed health care plan" or "plan" means a health care insurer or a provider service network when offering a benefit that either requires a covered person to use, or creates incentives, including financial incentives, for a covered person to use health care providers managed, owned, under contract with or employed by the health care insurer or provider service network. "Managed health care plan" or "plan" does not include a health care insurer or provider service network offering a traditional fee-for-service indemnity benefit or a benefit that covers only short-term travel, accident-only, limited benefit, student health plan or specified disease policies;

K. "person" means an individual or other legal entity;

L. "point-of-service plan" or "open plan" means a managed health care plan that allows enrollees to use health care providers other than providers under direct contract with or employed by the plan, even if the plan provides incentives, including financial incentives, for covered persons to use the plan's designated participating providers;

M. "provider service network" means two or more health care providers affiliated for the purpose of providing health care services to covered persons on a capitated or similar prepaid flat-rate basis that hold a certificate of authority pursuant to the Provider Service Network Act [59A-42A-1 NMSA 1978];

N. "superintendent" means the superintendent of insurance; and

O. "utilization review" means a system for reviewing the appropriate and efficient allocation of health care services given or proposed to be given to a patient or group of patients.