2024 Transparency Notice

A) Non-network liability and balance billing

The Ambetter network is the group of providers, including but not limited to physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, other facilities and health care professionals, we contract with to provide care for you. If a provider is in our network, services are covered by your health insurance plan. Network providers may not bill you for covered expenses beyond your applicable cost sharing amounts (e.g., copayment, coinsurance, and/or a deductible). If you receive services from a non-network provider, you may have to pay more for services you receive. Non-network providers may be permitted to bill you for the difference between what we agreed to pay and the billed amount for a service. This is known as balance billing. This amount is likely more than network costs for the same service and might not count toward your annual maximum out-of-pocket amount limit. However, you will not be balance billed when balance billing protections apply to covered services. As a member, non-network providers should not bill you for covered services for any amount greater than your applicable in-network cost responsibilities when balance billing protections apply to covered services that are:Emergency services provided to a member, as well as services provided after the member is stabilized unless the member gave notice and consent to be balance billed for the post-stabilization services;
Non-emergency health care services provided to a member at a network hospital or at a network ambulatory surgical center unless if member gave notice and consent pursuant to the federal No Surprises Act to be balance billed by the non-network provider; or
Air ambulance services provided to a member by a non-network provider.

B) Enrollee Claim Submission

Providers will typically submit claims on your behalf, but sometimes you may need to submit claims yourself for covered services. This may happen if your provider is not contracted with us.

Written proof of loss must be furnished to us in case of claim for loss for which this contract provides any periodic payment contingent upon continuing loss within 90 calendar days after the termination of the period for which the insurer is liable and in case of claim for any other loss within 90 calendar days after the date of such loss. Failure to furnish such proof within the time required will not invalidate nor reduce any claim if it was not reasonably possible to give proof within such time, provided such proof is furnished as soon as reasonably possible and in no event, except in the absence of legal capacity, later than one year from the time proof is otherwise required. Subject to due written proof of loss, all accrued indemnities for loss for which this contract provides periodic payment will be paid monthly. If you have paid for services we agreed to cover, you can request reimbursement for the amount you paid. We can adjust your deductible, copayment or cost sharing to reimburse you.

To request reimbursement for a covered service, you need a copy of the detailed claim from your provider. You also need to submit the copy of the member reimbursement claim form (PDF) posted at Ambetter.homestatehealth.com under “Member Resources”. Send all the documentation to us at the following address:

Ambetter from Home State Health
Attn: Claims Department
P.O. Box 5010
Farmington, MO 63640-5010

After getting your claim, we will let you know we have received it, begin an investigation and request all items necessary to resolve the claim. We will do this in 30 days or less.

We will notify you, in writing, that we have either accepted or rejected your claim for processing within 30 business days as well. If we are unable to come to a decision about your claim within 30 business days, we will let you know and explain why we need additional time.

We will accept or reject your claim no later than 30 days after we receive it. If we reject your claim, the notice will state the reason why. If we agree to pay all or part of your claim, we will pay it no later than the 29 business days after the notice has been made.

C) Grace Periods and Claims Pending

If you don’t pay your premium by its due date, you’ll enter a grace period. This is the extra time we give you to pay.

During your grace period, you will still have coverage. However, if you don’t pay before a grace period ends, you run the risk of losing your coverage. During a grace period, we may hold — or pend — your claim payment.

If your coverage is terminated for not paying your premium, you won’t be eligible to enroll with us again until Open Enrollment or a Special Enrollment period.

If you receive a subsidy payment

After the first premium is paid, a grace period of 3 months from the premium due date is given for the payment of premium. Coverage will remain in force during the grace period. If full payment of premium is not received within the grace period, coverage will be terminated as of the last day of the first month during the grace period, if advance premium tax credits are received.

We will continue to pay all appropriate claims for covered services rendered to the member during the first month of the grace period, and may pend claims for covered services rendered to the member in the second and third month of the grace period. We will notify the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of the non-payment of premiums, the member, as well as providers of the possibility of denied claims when the member is in the second and third month of the grace period. We will continue to collect advance premium tax credits on behalf of the member from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and will return the advance premium tax credits on behalf of the member for the second and third month of the grace period if the member exhausts their grace period as described above.

If you don’t receive a subsidy payment

Premium payments are due in advance, on a calendar month basis. Monthly payments are due on or before the first day of each month for coverage effective during such month. There is a 30 calendar day grace period. This provision means that if any required premium is not paid on or before the date it is due, it may be paid during the grace period. During the grace period, the contract will stay in force; however, claims may pend for covered services rendered to the member during the grace period. We will notify the member, as well as providers, of the possibility of denied claims when the member is in the grace period.

D) Retroactive Denials

"Retroactive denial of a previously paid claim" or "retroactive denial of payment" means any attempt by a carrier retroactively to collect payments already made to a provider with respect to a claim by reducing other payments currently owed to the provider, by withholding or setting off against future payments, or in any other manner reducing or affecting the future claim payments to the provider.

There are instances where claims may be denied retroactively if you: receive services from a provider or facility that is not in our network, terminate coverage with Ambetter, provide late notification of other coverage due to new coverage, or have a change in circumstance, such as divorce or marriage. This causes Ambetter to request recoupment of payment from the provider.

If you believe the denial is in error, you are encouraged to contact Member Services Department by calling the number on your member identification card.

You can avoid retroactive denials by paying your premiums on time and in full, and making sure you talk to your provider about whether the service performed is a covered benefit. You can also avoid retroactive denials by obtaining your medical services from an in-network provider.

E) Recoupment of Overpayments

Members may call in to request a refund of overpaid premium. Refunds are processed by two methods, electronically or by a manual check. The type of refund that is issued is dependent on the method of payment. Payments made with a debit/credit card via eCashiering, interactive voice response (IVR), auto pay, or member portal, as well as credit card payments sent to our lockbox vendor, will be refunded via eCashering. Payments made via eCheck will also be refunded electronically. Payments made by check to our lockbox vendor and payments that were processed in-house at our Little Rock location must be refunded manually via live check.

F) Medical Necessity and Prior Authorization

Services are only covered if they are medically necessary. Medically necessary means, based on our determination, any medical service, items, supply or treatment to diagnose and treat a member’s illness or injury:

Is consistent with the symptoms or diagnosis;
Is provided according to generally accepted standards of medical practice;
Is not custodial care;
Is not solely for the convenience of the physician or the member;
Is not experimental or investigational;
Does not exceed the scope, duration, or intensity of that level of care that is needed to provide safe, adequate and appropriate diagnosis or treatment; and
When specifically applied to a hospital confinement, it means that the diagnosis and treatment of your medical symptoms or conditions cannot be safely provided as an outpatient.

Charges incurred for treatment not medically necessary are not eligible service expenses.

Prior Authorization Required

Some medical and behavioral health covered services require prior authorization. In general, network providers must obtain prior authorization from us prior to providing a network eligible service or supply to a member. However, there are some cases in which you must obtain the prior authorization. For example, if you:

Wish to receive a service or supply from a non-network provider;
Are admitted into a network facility by a non-network provider; or
Are requesting a non-covered service.

Prior authorization must be obtained for the following services, except for urgent care or emergency services. This list is not exhaustive. To confirm if a specific service requires prior authorization, please contact Member Services.

Non-emergency health care services provided by non-network providers ;
Reconstructive procedures;
Diagnostic tests such as specialized labs, procedures and high technology imaging;
Injectable drugs and medications;
Inpatient health care services;
Specific surgical procedures;
Nutritional supplements;
Pain management services; andTransplant services.

Prior authorization requests (medical and behavioral health) can be submitted by your provider electronically or via telephone, eFax, or provider web portal. Although not required, submitting requests within the recommended timeframes below will allow for timely review of prior authorization requests:

At least five calendar days prior to an elective admission as an inpatient in a hospital, extended care or rehabilitation facility, hospice facility or residential treatment facility.

At least 30 calendar days prior to the initial evaluation for organ transplant services.
At least 30 calendar days prior to receiving clinical trial services.
Within 24 hours of any inpatient admission, including emergent inpatient admissions.
At least five calendar days prior to the start of home health care except those members needing home health care after hospital discharge.

After prior authorization has been requested and all necessary information, including the results of any face-to-face clinical evaluation or second opinion that may be required has been submitted, we will notify you and your provider if the request has been approved as follows:

For urgent concurrent review, within 1 calendar day of receipt of the request.

For immediate or urgent request situations within 60 minutes, when the lack of treatment may result in an emergency room visit or emergency admission
For non-urgent pre-service requests regarding proposed admission, procedure or service, within 36 hours, which shall include 1 business day, of obtaining all necessary information
For urgent pre-service requests, within 24 hours from the date of receipt of the request of service.
For post-service requests and retrospective reviews, we will make our determination within 30 calendar days of receipt of the request. We will notify you in writing of the determination within 10 calendar days of making the determination

Except for medical emergencies, prior authorization must be obtained before services are rendered or expenses are incurred.

Failure to Obtain Prior Authorization

Network providers cannot bill you for services for which they fail to obtain prior authorization as required. Benefits will not be reduced for failure to comply with prior authorization requirements prior to receiving emergency services. However, you must contact us as soon as reasonably possible after you receive the emergency services.

G) Drug Exceptions Timeframes and Enrollee Responsibilities

Prescription Drug Exception Process

Sometimes members need access to drugs that are not listed on the formulary. Members or provider can submit a drug exception request to us by contacting Member Services or by sending a written request to the following address:

Ambetter from Home State Health
Attn: Member Services
7711 Carondelet Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63105

Standard exception request

A member, a member’s authorized representative or a member’s prescribing physician may request a standard review of a decision that a drug is not covered by the plan or a protocol exception for step therapy. Within 72 hours of the request being received, we will provide the member, the member’s authorized representative or the member’s prescribing physician with our coverage determination. Should the standard exception request or step therapy protocol exception request be granted, we will provide coverage of the non-formulary drug for the duration of the prescription, including refills, or of the drug that is the subject of the protocol exception.

Expedited exception request

A member, a member’s authorized representative or a member’s prescribing physician may request an expedited review based on exigent circumstances. Exigent circumstances exist when a member is suffering from a health condition that may seriously jeopardize the enrollee's life, health, or ability to regain maximum function or when an enrollee is undergoing a current course of treatment using a non-formulary drug. Within 24 hours of the request being received, we will provide the member, the member’s authorized representative or the member’s prescribing physician with our coverage determination. Should the standard exception or step therapy protocol exception request be granted, we will provide coverage of the non-formulary drug or the drug that is the subject of the protocol exception for the duration of the exigency.

External exception request review

If we deny a request for a standard exception or for an expedited exception, the member, the member’s authorized representative or the member’s prescribing physician may request that the original exception request and subsequent denial of such request be reviewed by an external review organization. We will make our determination on the external exception request and notify the member, the member’s authorized representative or the member’s prescribing physician of our coverage determination no later than 72 hours following receipt of the request, if the original request was a standard exception, and no later than 24 hours following its receipt of the request if the original request was an expedited exception.

If we grant an external exception review of a standard exception or step therapy protocol exception request, we will provide coverage of the non-formulary drug or the drug that is the subject of the protocol exception for the duration of the prescription. If we grant an external exception review of an expedited exception request, we will provide coverage of the non-formulary drug or the drug that is the subject of the protocol exception for the duration of the exigency.

H) Information on Explanations of Benefits

An Explanation of Benefits (EOB) is a statement that we send to members to explain what medical treatments and/or services we paid for on behalf of a member. This shows the amount billed by the provider, the issuer’s payment, and the enrollee’s financial responsibility pursuant to the terms of the policy. We will send an EOB to a member after we receive and adjudicate a claim on your behalf from a provider. If you need assistance interpreting your Explanation of Benefits, please contact Member Services.

I) Coordination of Benefits

Coordination of Benefits (COB) is the industry standard practice used to share the cost of care between two or more carriers when a member is covered by more than one health benefit plan.

Due to Missouri Law, Ambetter does not coordinate benefits with other commercial plans. However, coordination with Medicare may be required to avoid duplication of benefits when Ambetter members who become eligible for and enroll in Medicare. In that instance, Medicare is considered to be the primary payer, with Ambetter paying secondary up to Medicare’s allowable amount, subject to our benefits. It is important to note that dually enrolled members may not qualify for any government premium subsidies they once qualified for prior to Medicare becoming effective. If a member has any questions or concerns regarding being dually enrolled with Medicare and Ambetter, please contact the Health Insurance Marketplace for more information on the best course of action.

Ambetter complies with federal and state laws and regulations for COB and follows COB guidelines published by National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Under COB, the benefits of one plan are determined to be primary and are first applied to the cost of care. After considering what has been covered by the primary plan, the secondary plan may cover the cost of care up to the fully allowed expense according to the plan’s payment guidelines. Ambetter Claims COB and Recovery Unit procedures are designed to avoid payment in excess of allowable expense while also making sure claims are processed both accurately and timely.

“Allowable expense” is the necessary, reasonable, and customary item of expense for health care, when the item is covered at least in part under any of the plans involved, except where a statute requires a different definition. When a plan provides benefits in the form of services, the reasonable cash value of each service will be considered as both an allowable expense and a benefit paid.