HB1554: What NH Professional Services Need to Know About Peer Review

Most professional services owners in New Hampshire don't realize that starting July 1, 2027, they'll have a new right when an insurance company calls to review a prior authorization request: they can demand to know who is reviewing their case before the conversation even starts.

That's the core of a provision buried in HB1554, signed into law to strengthen peer-to-peer review protections. And for practices that regularly deal with insurance denials or delays, it's worth understanding now.

What the Law Requires

Under the new rule (RSA 420-J:6, X-a(b), Section 4), every insurance carrier conducting a peer-to-peer prior-authorization review must proactively disclose three pieces of information before the call takes place:

• The reviewer's name
• Their license number and type
• Their NPI (National Provider Identifier)

This isn't optional. The law classifies failure to disclose as an unfair insurance practice under RSA 417, which means the state's Insurance Commissioner can impose administrative penalties on carriers that don't comply.

Why This Matters to Your Practice

Prior authorizations already consume significant staff time. This provision adds a verification step—but one that can work in your favor. Before your clinician or staff member picks up the phone, you can confirm that the reviewer actually holds a valid license in the relevant field and is qualified to evaluate your patient's care.

In practice, this means:

• You catch problems early. If an insurer sends a reviewer's credentials and something looks off—wrong specialty, expired license, missing NPI—you have grounds to request a different reviewer or escalate the issue before wasting time on the call.
• Your staff has documentation. You'll have a paper trail of who reviewed what and when, which matters if a claim is later disputed or denied.
• You have leverage. If an insurer fails to disclose, you can report it to the Insurance Commissioner. Repeated violations could result in fines.

When This Takes Effect

The law is effective July 1, 2027. That gives insurers and healthcare practices time to update systems and workflows, but it's not far away. If your practice uses a prior-authorization management system or works with a billing service, now is the time to ask whether they're planning to accommodate this requirement.

What You Should Do Now

Review your current prior-authorization process. Identify which insurers you work with most frequently and consider reaching out to their provider relations teams to understand how they plan to comply. If you use a billing service or practice management software, ask whether they're building in a way to capture and verify reviewer credentials automatically.

This provision won't solve the prior-authorization problem, but it does shift a small amount of power back to providers. Understanding it now means your practice can use it effectively when it takes effect.

Source: New Hampshire HB1554, Section 4 (RSA 420-J:6, X-a(b)); effective July 1, 2027.