Previously, I wrote a blog about SB 381, which was a bill passed in the 2019 legislative session that changed how workers’ compensation developed and published their provider lists. SB 381 was codified in the Nevada Revised Statutes at NRS 616C.087. This new statute dictates how many doctors for each specialty an insurer must has have on their provider list, where the workers’ compensation insurers must publish their lists, and how doctors willing to treat injured workers may be added or removed from the insurer’s list.
A provider list is a list of doctors that a workers’ compensation insurance company has of doctors who they authorize to treat injured workers insured by their insurance company. Almost every insurance company or self-insured employer has a provider list.
The deadline for workers’ compensation insurers to send their new provider lists, which comply with the doctor per specialty requirement of NRS 616C.087, was October 1, 2020. Insurance companies had to send these lists to the Division of Industrial Relations (“DIR”) by then and the DIR would then publish these lists on their website for all to see. Previously, these lists were only given when requested directly from the workers’ compensation insurance company and were often frequently changing. Those days are now over!
Failure of a workers’ compensation insurance company to publish a list to the DIR by October 1, 2020, means that an injured worker can select and treat with physicians on the DIR’s master list, which includes all physicians in Nevada that are authorized to treat injured workers.
A list of all the workers’ compensation insurer’s provider lists can be found here. A list of the DIR’s master provider list can be found here.
