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The California Department of Managed Health Care issued an all-plan letter designed to provide flexibility for health plans to assist healthcare providers impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires.
Key provisions of the DMHC all-plan letter include extended duration for prior authorization, which entails extending the duration of existing prior authorization by 180 days. This is to enable providers to continue delivering authorized services, as well as to enable them to provide care to patients without the required submission of additional requests for services.
Other provisions include a longer claim filing deadline for providers to submit claims that extend to a minimum of 365 days, which gives healthcare providers an extended amount of time to attend to claims that may have been delayed due to wildfires. A health plan likely determines an overpayment to a provider; the time to dispute it has been extended to 30 working days. This gives providers extra time to resolve any financial discrepancies.
Displaced providers will also be allowed to deliver care from any temporary location, such as mobile clinics, for a minimum of six months.
