351

The state insurance fund, any stock corporation, mutual corporation or reciprocal insurer authorized to transact the business of workers' compensation insurance in this state or self-insurer may contract with a preferred provider organization to deliver all medical services mandated by this chapter, provided such contract takes effect on or after January first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven and the insurer or the employer has no financial interest in the preferred provider organization. Where there is a duty to collectively bargain, an employer shall collectively bargain the use and implementation of a preferred provider organization with the authorized collective bargaining agent of its employees.