This act requires the Department of Insurance to administer a grant program to assist in the establishment of health insurance purchasing cooperatives. This act also establishes the Advisory Joint Committee on Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperatives. This act establishes an individual health benefit reinsurance association and requires all entities providing health insurance or health benefits subject to state insurance regulation to be members of the association. Those entities that provide plans only for Medicaid recipients are exempted from membership in the association. The association's board is responsible for developing a plan to provide for the sharing of losses between the members of the association related to insuring individuals enrolled in health plans without the use of medical underwriting.
Board members are immune from civil liability for performing duties.
This act requires health insurers to follow certain procedures if they close a block of insurance business pertaining to individual health insurance policies. The insurer cannot close a block of business unless the insurer allows the existing contract holders to purchase a policy from a similar block of business which provides similar benefits and the insurer pools the experience of the closed block of business with other similar blocks of business to determine the new premium rate. If the insurer cannot offer a comparable block of insurance business, then the insurer must provide notice to the director of revenue that it is deciding to close a block of business. This act has an effective date for certain sections.