(1) Every health care service contractor agreement which is entered into initially or renewed after the effective date of this rule, and which provides benefits for any health care service to be performed by doctors of medicine, and every certificate issued thereunder, shall contain the following provision, or a provision which is the substantial equivalent of it:

"Benefits under this contract will not be denied for any health care service performed by a registered nurse licensed to practice under chapter 18.88 RCW, if first, the service performed was within the lawful scope of such nurse's license, and second, this contract would have provided benefits if such service had been performed by a doctor of medicine licensed to practice under chapter 18.71 RCW."

(2) The provisions of subsection (1) shall apply to all health care service agreements, whether they expressly provide for indemnification benefits for services rendered by health care providers who are not "participants" as defined in RCW 48.44.010(4), or whether they provide only for benefits in the form of services rendered by health care providers who are "participants" for the purpose of such contracts.

(3) To comply with RCW 48.44.290, benefits must not be denied to a person covered by a health care service agreement by reason of his choice to obtain health care services from a registered nurse. A unilaterally imposed contract provision which requires or permits an artificial reduction in the level of an indemnification benefit based on such a choice to obtain health care services from a registered nurse will be held to violate RCW 48.44.290, and will be the basis for disapproval of such agreement pursuant to RCW 48.44.020 (2)(f). An example of such an impermissible provision would be one which unilaterally sets the level of reimbursement for nurse-provided service at a fixed, less-than-100% percentage of the benefit which would be paid for participant-doctor-provided services, if any, or other doctor-provided services, if the contractor has no participant doctors. An example of a permissible provision would be one which was based on some percentage of the usual, customary, and reasonable (UCR) fee charged by the particular provider of health care service, and which applied the same percentage to the UCR fees of medical doctors and registered nurses alike. The latter provision would be permissible even if it resulted in lower actual dollar amounts for benefits for nurse-provided services than for doctor-provided services, since the difference would result from the disparity of fees actually charged by medical doctors and registered nurses rather than from an arbitrary formula based on assumptions concerning the relative worth of doctor-provided services versus nurse-provided services. A contract provision is not unilaterally imposed and is permissible, if it sets the benefit level in accord with an agreement between the health care service contractor and the particular registered nurse for whose services the benefits are provided.

(4) To comply with RCW 48.44.290, no health care service contractor agreement may contain a provision which places restrictions or limitations on benefits for nurse-provided health care services which are not also placed on benefits for doctor-provided health care services. An example of an impermissible provision would be one which limited the number of office calls made to a registered nurse to a number less than the limit for office calls made to a medical doctor. A contract provision which places such a limitation or restriction on benefits for nurse-provided health care services will be held to violate RCW 48.44.290, and will be the basis for disapproval of such agreement pursuant to RCW 48.44.020 (2)(f).