North Dakota Code 26.1-26.4-02 – Definitions
For purposes of this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 26.1-26.4-02
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. Source: FDIC
- Individual: means a human being. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Organization: includes a foreign or domestic association, business trust, corporation, enterprise, estate, joint venture, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, limited partnership, partnership, trust, or any legal or commercial entity. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
1. “Commissioner” means the insurance commissioner.
2. “Emergency medical condition” means a medical condition of recent onset and severity, including severe pain, that would lead a prudent layperson acting reasonably and possessing an average knowledge of health and medicine to believe that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in serious impairment to bodily function, serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part, or would place the person‘s health, or with respect to a pregnant woman the health of the woman or her unborn child, in serious jeopardy.
3. “Emergency services” means health care services, supplies, or treatments furnished or required to screen, evaluate, and treat an emergency medical condition.
4. “Enrollee” means an individual who has contracted for or who participates in coverage under an insurance policy, a health maintenance organization contract, a health service corporation contract, an employee welfare benefit plan, a hospital or medical services plan, or any other benefit program providing payment, reimbursement, or indemnification for health care costs for the individual or the individual’s eligible dependents.
5. “Health care insurer” includes an insurance company as defined in section 26.1-02-01, a health service corporation as defined in section 26.1-17-01, a health maintenance organization as defined in section 26.1-18.1-01, and a fraternal benefit society as defined in section 26.1-15.1-02.
6. “Provider of record” means the physician or other licensed practitioner identified to the utilization review agent as having primary responsibility for the care, treatment, and services rendered to an individual.
7. “Retrospective” means utilization review of medical necessity which is conducted after services have been provided to a patient, but does not include the review of a claim that is limited to an evaluation of reimbursement levels, veracity of documentation, accuracy of coding, or adjudication for payment.
8. “Utilization review” means a system for prospective, retrospective, and concurrent review of the necessity and appropriateness in the allocation of health care resources and services that are subject to state insurance regulation and which are given or proposed to be given to an individual within this state. Utilization review does not include elective requests for clarification of coverage.
9. “Utilization review agent” means any person or entity performing utilization review, except:
a. An agency of the federal government; or
b. An agent acting on behalf of the federal government or the department of health and human services, but only to the extent that the agent is providing services to the federal government or the department of health and human services.