This bill amends various chapters of the General Laws related to insurance, specifically focusing on the payment methods between dental plans or healthcare entities and dentists. It establishes that no contract can mandate that dentists accept payment exclusively through methods that incur fees or charges for releasing payments, including virtual credit cards. Dental plans or healthcare entities may initiate or change to a payment methodology that requires dentists to pay fees or charges to release payment only if they inform dentists of all available payment options, provide clear and accessible instructions for selecting alternative methods, ensure that dentists can exercise such selection without restriction, and obtain express acceptance from the provider or a designee of the provider to accept a payment using the specified method.

Additionally, the bill stipulates that neither the dental plan, the healthcare entity, nor any affiliated healthcare payments platform shall impose any fee or charge upon the dentist for access to payment or claims data, the transmission or processing of payment, or the issuance or mailing of payment.

The bill defines key terms such as "alternative payment method," "dental plan," "dentist," "express acceptance," "healthcare entity," "healthcare payments platform," and "virtual credit card." It is set to take effect on January 1, 2027. Overall, the legislation aims to protect dentists from being forced into payment methods that could incur additional costs, thereby promoting fairer practices in the healthcare payment system.