Illinois Administrative Code › Title 50 - INSURANCE › Part 2010 - ADVERTISEMENTS OF MEDICARE SUPPLEMENT INSURANCE › Section 2010.140 - Introductory, Initial or Special Offers

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
a) An advertisement of an individual policy
			 shall not directly or by implication represent that a contract or combination
			 of contracts is an introductory, initial or special offer, or that applicants
			 will receive substantial advantages not available at a later date, or that the
			 offer is available only to a specified group of individuals, unless such is the
			 fact. An advertisement shall not contain phrases describing an enrollment
			 period as "special," "limited," or similar words or phrases when the insurer
			 uses such enrollment periods as the usual method of advertising Medicare
			 supplement insurance.
b) An
			 enrollment period during which a particular insurance product may be purchased
			 on an individual basis shall not be offered within this State unless there has
			 been a lapse of not less than 6 months between the close of the immediately
			 preceding enrollment period for the same product and the opening of the new
			 enrollment period. The advertisement shall indicate the date by which the
			 applicant must mail the application, which shall be not less than ten days and
			 not more than forty days from the date that such enrollment period is
			 advertised for the first time. This requirement applies to all advertising
			 media, i.e., mail, newspapers, radio, television, magazines and periodicals, by
			 any one insurer. It is not applicable to solicitations of employees or members
			 of a particular group or association which otherwise would be eligible under
			 Sections 367 and 367a of the Illinois Insurance Code for group, blanket or
			 franchise insurance. The phrase "any one insurer" includes all the affiliated
			 companies of a group of insurance companies under common management or
			 control.
c) No advertisement shall
			 make any statement or implication to the effect that only a specific number of
			 policies will be sold, or that a time is fixed for the discontinuance of the
			 sale of the particular policy advertised because of special advantages
			 available in the policy, unless such is the fact.
d) The phrase "a particular insurance
			 product" in subsection (b) of this Section means an insurance policy which
			 provides substantially different benefits than those contained in any other
			 policy. Different terms of renewability; an increase or decrease in the dollar
			 amounts of benefits; an increase or decrease in any elimination period or
			 waiting period from those available during an enrollment period for another
			 policy shall not be sufficient to constitute the product being offered as a
			 different product eligible for concurrent or overlapping enrollment
			 periods.
e) An advertisement shall
			 not offer a policy which utilizes a reduced initial premium rate in a manner
			 which overemphasizes the availability and the amount of the initial reduced
			 premium. When an insurer charges an initial premium that differs in amount from
			 the amount of the renewal premium payable on the same mode, the advertisement
			 shall not display the amount of the reduced initial premium either more
			 frequently or more prominently than the renewal premium, and both the initial
			 reduced premium and the renewal premium must be stated in juxtaposition in each
			 portion of the advertisement where the initial reduced premium appears. The
			 term "juxtaposition" means side by side or immediately above or
			 below.
f) Special awards, such as a
			 "safe driver's award" shall not be used in connection with advertisements of
			 Medicare Supplement insurance.