A. Notwithstanding the provisions of § 38.2-3419, each insurer proposing to issue individual or group accident and sickness insurance policies providing hospital, medical and surgical, or major medical coverage on an expense-incurred basis; each corporation providing individual or group accident and sickness subscription contracts; and each health maintenance organization providing a health care plan for health care services shall provide coverage for infant hearing screenings and all necessary audiological examinations provided pursuant to § 32.1-64.1 and as prescribed herein for newborn children under each such policy, contract or plan delivered, issued for delivery or renewed in this Commonwealth on and after July 1, 2001.

B. For purposes of this section, such coverage shall provide coverage for infant hearing screenings and all necessary audiological examinations provided pursuant to § 32.1-64.1 using any technology approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, and as recommended by the national Joint Committee on Infant Hearing in its most current position statement addressing early hearing detection and intervention programs. Such coverage shall include benefits for any follow-up audiological examinations as recommended by a physician or audiologist and performed by a licensed audiologist to confirm the existence or absence of hearing loss.

C. Nothing contained in this section shall abrogate any obligation to provide coverage for hearing screening tests or any other hearing screening test or audiological diagnostic procedure pursuant to this section or any other law or regulation of the Commonwealth or of the United States or under the terms or provisions of any policy or plan issued, renewed, reissued or extended in the Commonwealth.

D. The provisions of this section shall not apply to short-term travel, accident only, limited or specified disease policies, or contracts designed for issuance to persons eligible for coverage under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, known as Medicare, or any other similar coverage under state or federal governmental plans, or to short-term nonrenewable policies of not more than six months' duration.

2001, c. 663.