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

Dental scope unsettled · Last verified 2026-08-30

Wyoming prompt-pay law for dental claims

Wyoming'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.

Wyo. Stat. §26-15-124

Read the statute text

Payment deadlines

Electronic claims: 45 days (after proofs of loss and supporting evidence)
Paper claims: 45 days (after proofs of loss and supporting evidence)

"Claims for benefits under a life, accident or health insurance policy shall be rejected or accepted and paid by the insurer or its agent designated to receive the claims within forty-five (45) days after receipt of the proofs of loss and supporting evidence" (§26-15-124(a)). Three express carve-outs suspend or displace that: an accident-and-health claim referred to the Wyoming state medical peer review committee when validity or amount is questioned, life-insurance settlement timing under W.S. 26-16-112(a), and the separate pharmacy clean-claims statute at W.S. 26-52-203. Property and casualty claims get the same 45 days under subsection (b).

Interest and penalties

Subsection (c) is a litigation remedy, not a lateness penalty: "if it is determined that the company refuses to pay the full amount of a loss covered by the policy and that the refusal is unreasonable or without cause, any court in which judgment is rendered for a claimant may also award a reasonable sum as an attorney's fee and interest at ten percent (10%) per year." The award presupposes the claimant's own suit on the policy, it is discretionary, and it is conditioned on a finding about the insurer's conduct. Describing Wyoming as a 10 percent late-payment interest state misstates the statute.

Does it apply to dental? Dental scope unsettled

The section covers claims for benefits "under a life, accident or health insurance policy," and dental benefit coverage is generally written as accident and health insurance — but the statute never names dental, and no source read here resolves whether a stand-alone dental plan sits inside. Treat the 45-day rule as applying to dental benefits paid under an accident and health policy, and treat a stand-alone dental carrier's position as an open question rather than a settled one.

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 Wyoming rule (Wyo. Stat. §26-15-124). Estimate only — the statute's own accrual triggers control.

Claim amount (allowed)Interest statutes run on the payable claim amount, not billed charges.Days past the deadlineDays after the statutory deadline for this claim (45 days (after proofs of loss and supporting evidence)), not days since submission.

Interest only if a court or regulator orders it

Wyoming has no automatic late-payment interest. The 10% annual interest and a reasonable attorney's fee are available only where a court renders judgment for the claimant and determines that the insurer's refusal to pay was "unreasonable or without cause" — and even then the award is discretionary. Missing the 45-day deadline alone does not start interest running.

How we calculate this

The calculator does not show a payable amount for this result; the explanation above states the controlling limitation. The rate and deadline come from Wyo. Stat. §26-15-124, 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

The pharmacy carve-out (W.S. 26-52-203) has its own clean-claim deadlines of 21 days electronic and 30 days paper — those are pharmacy figures and do not apply to dental claims.
A referral of a questioned accident-and-health claim to the state medical peer review committee suspends the 45-day clock.
The section is intact and unrepealed in the official Title 26 compilation generated May 8, 2026.

Sources (statute text)

Wyo. Stat. §26-15-124 — Wyoming Statutes Title 26 (Wyoming Legislature compilation, pp. 317–318)