The Nevada Legislature has passed, and Governor Stephen F. Sisolak has approved, a bill that prohibits insurers from denying certain coverage for maternity care because the insured acts as a gestational carrier.
Existing Nevada law prohibits an individual or group insurance plan from denying coverage or restricting benefits for any length of stay in a hospital in connection with childbirth to less than 48 hours after a vaginal delivery or 96 hours after a cesarean section, unless otherwise recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists or the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Assembly Bill No. 472 amends existing Nevada law to:
(1) Prohibit any insurer that offers or issues a group health insurance policy that includes coverage for maternity care, excluding Medicaid and insurance provided by local governments for their employees, from denying, limiting, or seeking reimbursement for maternity care because the insured acts as a gestational carrier; and
(2) Require a child carried by a gestational carrier to be deemed, for purposes relating to a policy of health insurance, to be the child of the person or persons who manifest the intent to be legally bound as the parent of the child.
The new law is effective January 1, 2020.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].