Section Ins 403.06 - Hospital Tiering(a) Hospital tiers shall be incorporated into the HealthFirst standard benefit design. The member deductible for hospital services shall be based on whether the member obtains services from a tier 1or a tier 2 hospital. A listing of the hospitals in each tier shall be provided in the HealthFirst benefit description.(b) The HealthFirst standard benefit design shall require greater cost sharing for members seeking services from a tier 2 hospital than for those who obtain services from a tier 1 hospital.(c) The procedure for the assignment of hospitals to tiers shall be as follows: (1) The department shall use the all payer claims data base for the previous calendar year, collected pursuant to RSA 420-G:11, and the New Hampshire health care facility data, collected pursuant to He-C 1500, to determine historical pricing and payment differences among hospitals;(2) Assignment to a tier shall be based on relative payment differences among the hospitals as well as geographical proximity and access;(3) A hospital in close proximity to a lower cost hospital that provides services within the same hospital service area may be assigned to tier 2 despite its overall cost ranking across all hospitals in the state. The assignment of a hospital to tier 2 shall be based on geographical location;(4) All hospitals located out of state shall be assigned to tier 2; and(5) The department shall publish the hospital tiering by December 1st of each year. The hospital tiers shall be effective on a calendar year basis beginning on January 1st of each year.N.H. Admin. Code § Ins 403.06