[ Text of section effective until July 1, 2009. Repealed by 2008, 256, Sec. 12. See 2008, 256, Sec. 17.]
Section 4A1/2. Any subscription certificate under an individual or group medical service agreement, except certificates which provide supplemental coverage to Medicare or other governmental programs, which shall be delivered or issued or renewed in this commonwealth shall provide as benefits to all individual subscribers and members within the commonwealth and to all group members having a principal place of employment within the commonwealth, for expense for the treatment of alcoholism as hereinafter set forth:
(a) In the case of benefits based upon confinement as an in-patient in an accredited or licensed hospital or in any other public or private facility thereof providing services especially for the detoxification or rehabilitation of intoxicated persons or alcoholics and which is licensed by the department of public health for those services, or in a residential alcohol treatment program as referred to in section twenty-four of chapter ninety, such benefits shall be at least thirty days in any calendar year. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions, the period of confinement may be calculated by substituting, solely at the non-profit medical service corporation's option and, where medically appropriate, two days of outpatient day treatment for one day of inpatient hospital care. For the purposes of this section, an "outpatient hospital day'' shall be defined by the division of insurance.
(b) In the case of outpatient benefits these shall cover, to the extent of five hundred dollars over a twelve month period, services furnished by an accredited or licensed hospital, or by any public or private facility or portion thereof providing services especially for the rehabilitation of intoxicated persons or alcoholics and which is licensed by the department of public health for those purposes. Consultations or treatment sessions furnished by a facility in this clause shall be rendered by a physician or psychotherapist fully licensed under the provisions of chapter one hundred and twelve who devotes a substantial portion of his time treating intoxicated persons or alcoholics. For purposes of this clause "psychotherapist'' shall mean a person fully licensed to practice medicine under the provisions of said chapter one hundred and twelve and who devotes a substantial portion of his time to the practice of psychiatry.