Vermont Statutes
Chapter 221 - Health Care Administration
§ 9422. Credit card payments optional for providers

§ 9422. Credit card payments optional for providers
(a) As used in this section:
(1) “Credit card payment” means a type of electronic funds transfer in which a health insurer or its contracted vendor issues a single-use series of numbers associated with payment for health care services delivered by a health care provider and chargeable for a predetermined dollar amount and in which the health care provider is responsible for processing the payment using a credit card terminal or Internet portal. The term includes virtual or online credit card payments in which no physical credit card is presented to the health care provider and the single-use credit card number expires upon payment processing.
(2) “Health care provider” has the same meaning as in section 9402 of this title.
(3) “Health insurer” means an insurance company that provides health insurance as defined in 8 V.S.A. § 3301(a)(2), a nonprofit hospital or medical service corporation, a managed care organization, a health maintenance organization, and, to the extent permitted under federal law, any administrator of an insured, self-insured, or publicly funded health care benefit plan offered by a public or private entity, as well as any entity offering a policy for specific disease, accident, injury, hospital indemnity, dental care, disability income, long-term care, or other limited benefit coverage.
(b) A health insurer or its contracted vendor shall not require a health care provider, including a dentist or ambulance service provider, to accept reimbursement by credit card payment unless the health care provider has affirmatively elected to receive payments in this manner. If a health care provider, including a dentist or ambulance service provider, does not affirmatively elect to receive reimbursement by credit card payment, the health insurer or its contracted vendor shall make payments to the provider in another manner. (Added 2021, No. 25, § 32, eff. Jan. 1, 2022.)

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