§33-25A-28. Required health maintenance organization option.

(1) Each employer shall offer no less than once every year to every employee and dependent entitled to receive health care under an existing health benefit plan supported in whole or in part by such employer the opportunity to become enrollees in certified health maintenance organizations which have the capacity to provide basic health services in health maintenance organization service areas in which at least twenty-five such employees reside: Provided, That nothing herein shall require an employer to contribute more on behalf of an employee seeking to enroll in a health maintenance organization than would be contributed on the employee's behalf to the existing health plan.

(2) If any employees of an employer are represented by a collective bargaining representative or other employee representative designated or selected under any law of this state, the offer described in subsection (1) of this section should be made to such collective bargaining representatives or other employee representative, and only if such representative approves the offer should it be made to employees represented by such representatives.

(3) If there is more than one certified health maintenance organization which meets the requirements of subsection (1) of this section and such health maintenance organizations have service areas contemporaneously covering the same twenty-five or more employees, the employer shall offer such employees at least one health maintenance organization which provides health services primarily through staff physicians, or medical groups, or a combination of both; and one health maintenance organization which provides health services through other means.

(4) Any employer who knowingly fails to comply with any of the requirements of this section shall be subject to a fine of not more than $10,000 for every thirty-day period that such violation continues.

(5) The commissioner is authorized, in addition to the remedy provided in subsection (4) of this section, to seek an injunction in a court of competent jurisdiction to compel compliance with the provisions of this section.