The General Assembly determines that health maintenance organizations, when properly regulated, encourage methods of treatment and controls over the quality of care which effectively contain costs and provide for continuous health care by undertaking responsibility for the provision, availability, and accessibility of services. For this reason, and because the primary responsibility of a health maintenance organization lies in providing quality healthcare services on a prepaid basis without regard to the type and number of services actually rendered, rather than providing indemnification against the cost of the services, the General Assembly finds it necessary to provide a statutory framework for the establishment and continuing regulation of health maintenance organizations which is separate from the insurance laws of this state, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.