§33-25A-1. Short title and purpose.

(a) This article may be cited as the "Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1977."

(b) Faced with the continuation of mounting costs of health care coupled with its inaccessibility to large segments of the population, the Legislature has determined that there is a need to encourage alternative methods for the delivery of health care services, with a view toward achieving greater efficiency, availability, distribution and economy in providing these services.

In carrying out this intention, it is the policy of the state to eliminate legal barriers to the establishment of prepaid health care plans accountable to consumers for the health care services they provide; to provide for the financial and administrative soundness of these health care plans as it relates to their ability to provide such services, and to exempt prepaid health care plans from regulation as an insurer, the operation of insurance laws of the state and all other laws inconsistent with the purposes of this article.