38.2-3418.9 - Minimum hospital stay for hysterectomy.
§ 38.2-3418.9. Minimum hospital stay for hysterectomy.
A. Notwithstanding the provisions of § 38.2-3419, each insurer proposing toissue an individual or group hospital policy or major medical policy in thisCommonwealth, each corporation proposing to issue an individual or grouphospital, medical or major medical subscription contract, and each healthmaintenance organization providing a health care plan for health care shallprovide coverage for laparoscopy-assisted vaginal hysterectomy and vaginalhysterectomy as provided in this section.
B. Such coverage shall include benefits for a minimum stay in the hospital ofnot less than twenty-three hours for a laparoscopy-assisted vaginalhysterectomy and forty-eight hours for a vaginal hysterectomy. Nothing inthis subsection shall be construed as requiring the provision of the totalhours referenced when the attending physician, in consultation with thepatient, determines that a shorter period of hospital stay is appropriate.
C. The requirements of this section shall apply to all insurance policies,contracts and plans delivered, issued for delivery, reissued, or extended onand after July 1, 1999, or at any time thereafter when any term of thepolicy, contract or plan is changed or any premium adjustment is made.
D. This section shall not apply to short-term travel, accident-only, limitedor specified disease, or individual conversion policies or contracts, nor topolicies or contracts designed for issuance to persons eligible for coverageunder Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, known as Medicare, or any othersimilar coverage under state or federal governmental plans.
(1999, cc. 643, 649; 2000, c. 922.)