1. A health care plan issued by a managed care organization must provide coverage for benefits payable for expenses incurred for:

(a) Deoxyribonucleic acid testing for high-risk strains of human papillomavirus every 3 years for women 30 years of age and older; and

(b) Administering the human papillomavirus vaccine as recommended for vaccination by a competent authority, including, without limitation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration or the manufacturer of the vaccine.

2. A managed care organization must ensure that the benefits required by subsection 1 are made available to an insured through a provider of health care who participates in the network plan of the managed care organization.

3. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 5, a managed care organization that offers or issues a health care plan which provides coverage for prescription drugs shall not:

(a) Require an insured to pay a higher deductible, any copayment or coinsurance or require a longer waiting period or other condition to obtain any benefit provided in a health care plan pursuant to subsection 1;

(b) Refuse to issue a health care plan or cancel a health care plan solely because the person applying for or covered by the plan uses or may use any such benefit;

(c) Offer or pay any type of material inducement or financial incentive to an insured to discourage the insured from obtaining any such benefit;

(d) Penalize a provider of health care who provides any such benefit to an insured, including, without limitation, reducing the reimbursement of the provider of health care;

(e) Offer or pay any type of material inducement, bonus or other financial incentive to a provider of health care to deny, reduce, withhold, limit or delay access to any such benefit to an insured; or

(f) Impose any other restrictions or delays on the access of an insured to any such benefit.

4. An evidence of coverage for a health care plan subject to the provisions of this chapter which is delivered, issued for delivery or renewed on or after January 1, 2018, has the legal effect of including the coverage required by subsection 1, and any provision of the evidence of coverage or the renewal thereof which is in conflict with this section is void.

5. Except as otherwise provided in this section and federal law, a managed care organization may use medical management techniques, including, without limitation, any available clinical evidence, to determine the frequency of or treatment relating to any benefit required by this section or the type of provider of health care to use for such treatment.

6. As used in this section:

(a) “Human papillomavirus vaccine” means the Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Recombinant Vaccine or its successor which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of human papillomavirus infection and cervical cancer.

(b) “Medical management technique” means a practice which is used to control the cost or utilization of health care services or prescription drug use. The term includes, without limitation, the use of step therapy, prior authorization or categorizing drugs and devices based on cost, type or method of administration.

(c) “Network plan” means a health care plan offered by a managed care organization under which the financing and delivery of medical care, including items and services paid for as medical care, are provided, in whole or in part, through a defined set of providers under contract with the managed care organization. The term does not include an arrangement for the financing of premiums.

(d) “Provider of health care” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 629.031.

(Added to NRS by 2007, 3241; A 2013, 3651; 2017, 1858)