Section 404-G:5-b High Risk Pool.
I. There is hereby created the New Hampshire high risk pool. This pool shall operate subject to the supervision and control of the association and shall offer policies of insurance on or after July 1, 2002. The pool shall offer health care coverage consisting of 4 benefit plans, 2 of which shall be either managed care or network based plans.
II. The plans to be issued by the pool, including schedules of benefits, exclusions and other limitations shall be established by the association subject to the approval of the commissioner. In establishing the plans, the association shall take into consideration the levels of health insurance coverage provided in the state and medical economic factors as may be deemed appropriate and shall promulgate benefit levels, deductibles, coinsurance factors, exclusions and limitations determined to be generally reflective of and commensurate with comprehensive, major medical health insurance coverage provided in the state. The association shall, utilizing standard morbidity assumptions, annually place a value on all plans presently being written or issued in the individual market. The association shall average these values, weighed according to each plan's written premium volume, or some other suitable proxy, and utilizing the same standard morbidity assumptions, shall develop 2 coverage options: Option A and Option B.
III. The value of Option A developed by the association shall be 10 percent higher than the average value computed under paragraph II and the value of Option B shall be 10 percent lower than the average value computed under paragraph II. The association shall also provide either a managed care or network based version of Option A and a managed care version of Option B for a total of 4 plan choices.
III-a. The association, subject to the approval of the commissioner, may from time to time offer such plans, in addition to the 4 plans required under paragraphs II and III, as its board of directors determines would be helpful to advance the purposes of this chapter.
IV. The insurance plans developed by the association shall comply with all applicable insurance laws and rules, except as provided herein.
V. (a) The pool shall be payer of last resort of benefits whenever any other benefit or source of third-party payment is available. The pool shall have a right of subrogation for any other health insurance coverage and by all hospital and medical expense benefits paid or payable under any workers' compensation coverage, automobile medical payment or liability insurance whether provided on the basis of fault or nonfault, and by any hospital or medical benefits paid or payables under or provided pursuant to any state or federal law or program.
(b) The pool shall have a cause of action against an eligible person for the recovery of the amount of benefits paid that are not for covered expenses. Benefits due from the plan may be reduced or applied as a set-off against any amount recoverable under this paragraph.
VI. The high risk pool shall be funded by premiums charged for coverage and by assessments which the association shall calculate based on the number of covered lives times a specified amount. The high risk pool shall not be funded with state general fund revenue. The high risk pool shall never cease writing policies to eligible individuals.
Source. 2001, 295:10. 2004, 187:11, eff. July 31, 2004.