Substitute House Bill 156 Summary

• Prohibits health insurers and vision insurers from imposing contractual payment limits on vision care providers for services and materials not covered under enrollee plans, effective for contracts entered/amended/renewed on or after January 1, 2019

• Requires health insurers and sickness/accident insurers to provide enrollees with conspicuous written disclosures about uncovered vision services, vision care provider payment options, and any business interests in vision material suppliers

• Establishes that vision care providers may voluntarily choose to accept reduced payment amounts for noncovered services and must provide pricing information to enrollees upon request

• Declares pattern violations of vision care disclosure requirements as unfair and deceptive insurance practices subject to enforcement by the superintendent of insurance

• Adds new definitions for "covered vision services," "vision care materials," and "vision care provider" to Ohio insurance law, and establishes corresponding disclosure requirements in Section 3901.21 and new Section 3923.86