Washington prompt pay law dental

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Under WAC 284-170-431 (formerly WAC 284-43-321), the Washington payment deadline is 95% of monthly clean-claim volume paid within 30 days; 95% of monthly volume of all claims paid or denied within 60 days. A carrier failing the standard "shall pay interest on undenied and unpaid clean claims more than sixty-one days old until the carrier meets the standard," assessed at 1 percent per month, calculated monthly as simple interest and prorated for any portion of a month, added to the unpaid claim without the provider submitting an additional claim (WAC 284-170-431(2)(d)). Dental applicability: Dental carriers are reached through the carrier definition rather than the plan definition. A self-funded private-employer (ERISA) plan is generally beyond this statute's reach and runs on the federal claims-procedure clock instead — but that comes from the courts reading 29 U.S.C. § 1144, not from its text, and it is not categorical: a self-funded governmental or church plan is not an ERISA plan at all, § 1144(b)(6) leaves multiple employer welfare arrangements open to state insurance law, and nothing in § 1144 bars a state from reaching the third-party administrator or the network contract.