"NOTICE TO ALL FEMALE PLAN MEMBERS:
YOUR RIGHT TO SELECT A WOMAN'S PRINCIPAL HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
Illinois law allows you to select "a woman's principal health care provider" in addition to your selection of a primary care physician. A woman's principal health care provider is a physician licensed to practice medicine in all its branches specializing in obstetrics or gynecology or specializing in family practice. A woman's principal health care provider may be seen for care without referrals from your primary care physician. If you have not already selected a woman's principal health care provider, you may do so now or at any other time.
You are not required to have or to select a woman's principal health care provider.
Your woman's principal health care provider must be a part of your plan. You may get the list of participating obstetricians, gynecologists, and family practice specialists from your employer's employee benefits coordinator, or for your own copy of the current list, you may call [insert plan's toll free number]. The list will be sent to you within 10 days after your call. To designate a woman's principal health care provider from the list, call [insert plan's toll free number] and tell our staff the name of the physician you have selected.".
If the insurer or managed care plan exercises the option set forth in subsection (a-5), the notice shall also state:
"Your plan requires that your primary care physician and your woman's principal health care provider have a referral arrangement with one another. If the woman's principal health care provider that you select does not have a referral arrangement with your primary care physician, you will have to select a new primary care physician who has a referral arrangement with your woman's principal health care provider or you may select a woman's principal health care provider who has a referral arrangement with your primary care physician. The list of woman's principal health care providers will also have the names of the primary care physicians and their referral arrangements.".
No later than 120 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1998, the insurer or managed care plan shall provide each employer who has a policy of insurance or a managed care plan with the insurer or managed care plan with a list of physicians licensed to practice medicine in all its branches specializing in obstetrics or gynecology or specializing in family practice who have contracted with the plan. At the time of enrollment and thereafter within 10 days after a request by an insured or enrollee, the insurer or managed care plan also shall provide this list directly to the insured or enrollee.
The list shall include each physician's address, telephone number, and specialty. No insurer or plan formal or informal policy may restrict a female insured's or enrollee's right to designate a woman's principal health care provider, except as set forth in subsection (a-5).
If the female enrollee is an enrollee of a managed care plan under contract with the Department of Healthcare and Family Services , the physician chosen by the enrollee as her woman's principal health care provider must be a Medicaid-enrolled provider.
This requirement does not require a female insured or enrollee to make a selection of a woman's principal health care provider.
The female insured or enrollee may designate a physician licensed to practice medicine in all its branches specializing in family practice as her woman's principal health care provider.
Notwithstanding a plan's restrictions of the frequency or timing of making designations of primary care providers, a female enrollee or insured who is subject to the selection requirements of this subsection, may, at any time, effect a change in primary care physicians in order to make a selection of a woman's principal health care provider.
215 ILCS 5/356r