441—88.27 (249A) Access to service.
	 88.27(1) Choice of provider. Recipients will have the opportunity to choose their health care professionals to the extent possible and medically appropriate from any of the PHP providers participating in the Medicaid contract.
	 88.27(2) Medical service delivery sites. Medical service delivery sites shall have the following specific characteristics:
	  a.   	 Be located within 30 miles of and be accessible from the personal residences of enrolled recipients.
	  b.   	 Have sufficient staff resources to adequately provide the medical services for which the contract is in effect including physicians with privileges at one or more acute care hospitals.
	  c.   	 Have arrangements for services to be provided by other providers where in-house capability to serve specific medical needs does not exist.
	  d.   	 Meet the applicable standards for participating in the Medicaid program.
	  e.   	 Be in compliance with all applicable local, state, and federal standards related to the service provided as well as those for fire and safety.
	 88.27(3) Adequate appointment system. The PHP shall have procedures for the scheduling of patient appointments which are appropriate to the reason for the visit as follows:
	  a.   	 Patients with urgent nonemergency needs shall be seen within one hour of presentation at a PHP medical service delivery site.
	  b.   	 Patients with persistent symptoms shall be seen within 48 hours of reporting of the onset of the persistent symptoms.
	  c.   	 Patient routine visits shall be scheduled within four to six weeks of the date the patient requests the appointment.
	  d.   	 Scheduling of appointments shall be by specific time intervals and not on a block basis.
	 88.27(4) Adequate after hours call-in coverage. The PHP must have in effect the following arrangements which provide for adequate after hours call-in coverage:
	  a.   	 Twenty-four-hour-a-day telephone coverage shall exist.
	  b.   	 If a physician does not respond to the initial telephone call, there must be a written protocol specifying when a physician must be consulted. Calls requiring a medical decision shall be forwarded to the on-call physician and a response to each call which requires a medical decision must be provided within 30 minutes.
	  c.   	 Notations shall be made in the patient’s medical record of relevant information related to an after-hours call.
	 88.27(5) Adequate referral system. The PHP must effect the following arrangements which provide for an adequate referral system:
	  a.   	 A network of referral sources for all services which are covered in the contract, but not directly provided by the PHP.
	  b.   	 Procedures for the return of relevant medical information from referral sources including review of information by the referring physicians, entry of information into the patient’s medical record, and arrangements for periodic reports from ongoing referral arrangements.
	  c.   	 A notation in the medical record for hospitals’ patients indicating the reason, date, and duration of hospitalization and entry of pertinent reports from the hospitalization and discharge planning in the medical record.