AR| The Arkansas Insurance Department’s Bulletin No. 9-2025, issued June 12, 2025, provides a comprehensive summary of significant insurance-related legislation enacted during the 2025 Arkansas Legislative Session, effective August 5, 2025, unless otherwise specified. The laws enacted cover a wide range of areas including life and health insurance, pharmacy benefit management, property and casualty insurance, and general regulatory changes. They collectively aim to increase transparency, enhance consumer protections, improve coverage standards, streamline administrative requirements, and strengthen oversight for insurers and benefits managers in the state.
Finance & Regulation
- Act 261: Updates holding company regulations related to capital calculations and mergers.
- Act 349 (Sec. 2–3): Imposes bonding requirement on foreign reciprocal insurers and reduces exam frequency for medical service corporations.
- Act 554: Amends captive insurer rules, adds provisional licenses, and relaxes association qualification criteria.
General Operations
- Act 349 (Sec. 1 & 4): Removes Arkansas office requirement for Workers’ Compensation Plan and updates service of process rules.
- Act 656: Revises the Arkansas Self-Funded Cyber Response Program.
- Acts 560 & 779: Establish a state captive program for insuring public property, transferring authority to the Department of Transformation and Shared Services.
Life & Health
- Act 136: Requires notice for healthcare claim downcoding within 30 days.
- Act 141: Permits providers to maintain electronic medical records.
- Act 142: Mandates acceptance of electronic medical records during audits.
- Act 268: Regulates vision benefit managers and modifies the Vision Care Plan Act.
- Act 307: Directs insurers to pay out-of-network claims directly to providers.
- Act 310: Expands “Any Willing Provider” laws to include pharmacies.
- Act 348: Requires brain injury treatments to be covered by health plans.
- Act 349 (Sec. 5): Repeals the outdated Comprehensive Health Insurance Pool Act.
- Act 389: Bans prior authorizations for mental health crisis treatment.
- Act 390: Mandates lung cancer screening and follow-up care coverage.
- Act 423: Requires providers to be treated as in-network from the application date.
- Act 424: Mandates breast reconstruction surgery coverage, including out-of-network reimbursements.
- Act 433: Allows licensed psychological practitioners to practice independently and be reimbursed.
- Act 434: Requires reimbursement for services by psychology technicians.
- Act 435: Establishes certification and compensation for community health workers.
- Act 510: Strengthens prior authorization transparency and enforcement.
- Act 511: Revises the “gold card” program for prior authorization exemptions.
- Act 512: Sets audit requirements under the Arkansas Medical Audit Bill of Rights.
- Act 513: Bans step therapy for certain prescribed ventilators under specific conditions.
- Act 553: Requires mammogram and breast ultrasound coverage without cost-sharing.
- Act 556: Mandates coverage for healthcare in mobile units.
- Act 561: Requires coverage for biological mesh in mastectomy-related procedures.
- Act 569: Expands the healthcare plan definition to include TPAs, and allows providers to opt out of network leasing.
- Act 570: Sets administrative appeal rights for drug reimbursement disputes.
- Act 571: Requires timely processing of credentialing applications within 90 days.
- Act 626: Limits utilization controls for crisis stabilization units to Medicaid standards.
- Act 627: Requires coverage for lactation consultant services in outpatient settings.
- Act 628: Mandates coverage for medical treatment of severe obesity excluding weight-loss drugs.
- Act 638: Changes adverse determination notice rules and requires clearer explanations.
- Act 651: Requires insurers to provide monthly reports to large policyholders upon request.
- Act 772: Bans insurance coverage for organ transplants linked to countries engaged in forced organ harvesting.
- Act 836: Requires ambulance rate data collection to be reported to the Insurance Commissioner.
- Act 859: Mandates coverage of restorative reproductive medicine.
- Act 860: Requires genetic testing coverage for cancer-linked inherited mutations.
- Act 866: Requires coverage for childbirth at licensed birthing centers.
- Act 867: Establishes minimum ambulance reimbursement when no contract exists.
- Act 958: Enhances consumer protections on deferred life insurance cash surrender payments.
- Act 965: Requires doula services to be covered during prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care.
Pharmacy
- Act 350: Requires timely PBM claim payments and applies penalties for delays.
- Act 425: Prohibits PBMs from excluding licensed Arkansas pharmacies adhering to fair terms.
- Act 514: Bans “ghost networks” and prohibits unfair/deceptive PBM practices.
- Act 633: Adds new definitions and sets a PBM license fee at $20,000.
- Act 773: Regulates Pharmacy Services Administrative Organizations (PSAOs).
- Act 775: Strengthens PBM transparency rules and penalizes underpayments with interest.
- Act 990: Grants pharmacists private right of action for MAC law violations.
Property and Casualty
- Act 22: Requires extended notice for significant premium increases in commercial insurance.
- Act 23: Removes the broker fee cap for surplus lines.
- Act 29: Grants priority to purchase money mortgages over state debt.
- Act 246: Requires deductibles on residential property insurance to be disclosed clearly.
- Act 345: Allows surplus lines insurers to meet vehicle responsibility requirements.
- Act 346: Mandates electronic access to unwatermarked title records at capped fees.
- Act 418: Expands who can file scrivener’s affidavits in property documents.
- Act 426: Sets standards for offering online marketplace guarantees.
- Act 427: Establishes a grant program to upgrade homes against wind and hail damage.
- Act 479: Clarifies lien priority between construction loans and mechanic’s liens.
- Act 520: Clarifies property transfers when a city vacates public space.
- Act 521: Allows title agents to settle personal property tax at real estate closings.
- Act 752: Requires ID verification for deed recordings unless filed by exempt professionals.
- Act 974: Clarifies home inspector liability insurance criteria and maintains coverage minimums.