What is the Mississippi prompt-pay deadline for dental claims, and what interest applies to late payment?

Dental scope unsettled · Last verified 2026-08-30

Mississippi prompt-pay law for dental claims

Mississippi's prompt-pay statute never names dental, and its definitions do not settle whether it reaches a stand-alone dental carrier. The deadlines are below.

Miss. Code Ann. §83-9-5(1)(h)

Read the statute text

Payment deadlines

Electronic claims: 25 days (electronic clean claim)
Paper claims: 35 days (paper clean claim)

Claims must be paid within 25 days after receipt of due written proof of loss in the form of a clean claim submitted electronically, and within 35 days where the clean claim was submitted on paper. A claim resubmitted with the requested documentation must be paid within 20 days of receipt. A claim submitted more than 30 days after the date the service was completed is not a clean claim at all, so the deadline never starts. Insurer-provider written agreements may substitute timelines that "differ from, but are at least as stringent as" the statute.

Interest and penalties

Where payment is late, "the insurer must pay the provider … or the insured … interest on accrued benefits at the rate of three percent (3%) per month accruing from the day after payment was due on the amount of the benefits that remain unpaid until the claim is finally settled or adjudicated" (§83-9-5(1)(h)3). Claims owed under Medicare Advantage or Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plans are excluded from that provision. Beyond interest, the person entitled to benefits may sue to recover the benefits and interest, and where the insurer acted in bad faith "as evidenced by a repeated or deliberate pattern of failing to pay benefits and/or claims when due," damages of up to three times the unpaid benefits are available. The commissioner can add tiered administrative fines up to $200,000 based on the share of clean claims paid on time.

Does it apply to dental? Dental scope unsettled

Mississippi's prompt-pay requirements sit inside the accident and sickness policy chapter and never name dental. The quote that circulates for dental coverage — "any group hospital, health or medical expense insurance policy … health and accident insurance policy" — is from §83-9-49, the preexisting-condition statute, not from §83-9-5. The Insurance Department requires filed accident and health policies to contain the entirety of the revised §83-9-5(1)(h), which is how the requirements reach the policies in the chapter, but whether a stand-alone dental policy is inside is not resolved by any source read here. One related trap: the direct-payment and no-balance-billing clause at §83-9-5(1)(i) names providers rendering "hospital, nursing, medical or surgical services" — dental services are not in that list, so do not assert it for dental claims.

Self-funded (ERISA) plans: A self-funded private-employer (ERISA) dental plan is generally beyond a state prompt-pay statute's reach: 29 U.S.C. § 1144(b)(2)(B) bars a state from deeming such a plan an insurer, and the courts have read that to keep state insurance regulation off it. The statute itself never uses the words self-funded or prompt pay, and the rule is not categorical — a self-funded governmental or church plan is not an ERISA plan at all, so state law can reach it; § 1144(b)(6) leaves multiple employer welfare arrangements open to state insurance law; and nothing in § 1144 addresses state enforcement against the third-party administrator or the network contract. Where the plan is a self-funded ERISA group health plan, the federal claims-procedure deadlines apply instead: a post-service benefit determination within 30 days (one 15-day extension), at least 180 days to appeal, and an appeal decision within 60 days (or two 30-day levels), under 29 CFR 2560.503-1.

Because this statute never names dental, whether it reaches your claim is unresolved. Treat anything below as the figure the statute would produce if it applies — read the applicability note above first.

Estimate the late-payment interest

Uses the verified Mississippi rule (Miss. Code Ann. §83-9-5(1)(h)). Estimate only — the statute's own accrual triggers control.

How the claim was submitted

Mississippi sets a different deadline for each, so this decides which day the field below counts from.

Electronic— 25 days (electronic clean claim)Paper— 35 days (paper clean claim)

Claim amount (allowed)Interest statutes run on the payable claim amount, not billed charges.Days past the deadlineDays after the statutory deadline for a electronic claim (25 days (electronic clean claim)), not days since submission.

Estimated interest

$38.25

3%/mo (monthly tiers, prorated by days)

3% per month from the day after payment was due, on the unpaid benefits, until the claim is settled or adjudicated. The statute states a monthly rate — an annualized figure is arithmetic, not statutory text. Medicare Advantage and MA-PD claims are carved out of this interest provision.

How we calculate this

Formula: claim × monthly tier rate × days in tier ÷ 30, summed across tiers, using simple (not compounded) interest as the statute states it. The rate and deadline come from Miss. Code Ann. §83-9-5(1)(h), read against the statute text linked in the sources on this page (last verified 2026-08-30). Accrual start dates, clean-claim status, safe harbors, and plan funding all affect the real figure — treat this as an estimate for the payer conversation, not a demandable amount.

Nothing you type here leaves your browser — the results are computed locally on this page.

Also in the statute

A resubmitted claim with the requested documentation must be paid within 20 days of receipt (§83-9-5(1)(h)1).
A claim submitted more than 30 days after the service was completed is not a clean claim (§83-9-5(1)(h)1.d).
Provider contracts may set different timelines only if they are at least as stringent as the statute; if the agreement is silent on interest, the statutory 3% per month applies (§83-9-5(8)(d)).
Last amended by HB 1079 (Laws 2024, ch. 359), effective on passage April 17, 2024.

Payment deadlines

Interest and penalties

Does it apply to dental? Dental scope unsettled

Estimate the late-payment interest

Also in the statute

Sources (statute text)