Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, an emergency physician and surgeon, or an emergency physician group, with a gross billings arrangement with a hospital shall be entitled to receive reimbursement from the Emergency Medical Services Fund for services provided in that hospital, if all of the following conditions are met:

(a)  The services are provided in a basic or comprehensive general acute care hospital emergency department, or in a standby emergency department in a small and rural hospital as defined in Section 124840.

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(b)  The physician and surgeon is not an employee of the hospital.

(c)  All provisions of Section 1797.98c are satisfied, except that payment to the emergency physician and surgeon, or an emergency physician group, by a hospital pursuant to a gross billings arrangement shall not be interpreted to mean that payment for a patient is made by a responsible third party.

(d)  Reimbursement from the Emergency Medical Services Fund is sought by the hospital or the hospital’s designee, as the billing and collection agent for the emergency physician and surgeon, or an emergency physician group.

For purposes of this section, a “gross billings arrangement” is an arrangement whereby a hospital serves as the billing and collection agent for the emergency physician and surgeon, or an emergency physician group, and pays the emergency physician and surgeon, or emergency physician group, a percentage of the emergency physician and surgeon’s or group’s gross billings for all patients.

(Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 1016, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 1999.)