17B:26-45 - Minimum standards for form, content and sale of individual health insurance; regulations
17B:26-45. Minimum standards for form, content and sale of individual health insurance; regulations
a. The commissioner of insurance shall issue such regulations as he shall deem necessary or desirable to establish minimum standards, including standards for full and fair disclosure, for the form, content and sale of individual health insurance issued pursuant to chapter 26 of Title 17B of the New Jersey Statutes. Such regulations shall apply to all, any portion, or reasonable classifications of such insurance, other than conversion policies pursuant to a contractual conversion privilege.
b. The purposes of such minimum standards shall include any or all of the following: (1) reasonable standardization and simplification of language, terms and coverages to facilitate understanding and comparisons; (2) elimination of provisions which may be misleading or unreasonably confusing in connection with either the purchase of such insurance or the settlement of claims; (3) elimination of deceptive practices in connection with the sale of such insurance; (4) elimination of provisions which may be contrary to the health care needs of the public; (5) elimination of coverages which are so limited in scope as to be of no substantial economic value to the holders thereof; and (6) elimination of unfair renewal practices which are contrary to the health care needs and economic well-being of the public.
c. Any such regulations shall be promulgated in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (P.L.1968, c. 410, C. 52:14B-1 et seq.).
d. The department shall transmit copies of all rules and regulations adopted pursuant to this act to the Senate and General Assembly on a day on which both houses shall be meeting in the course of a regular or special session. The provisions of the "Administrative Procedure Act" or any other law to the contrary notwithstanding no such rule or regulation shall take effect if, within 60 days of the date of its transmittal to the Senate and General Assembly, the legislature shall pass a concurrent resolution stating in substance that the Legislature does not favor such proposed rule or regulation.
e. 120 days after the effective date of a regulation which has been adopted pursuant to this section, all policies of insurance previously filed with the commissioner which are not in compliance with the regulation shall be deemed to be withdrawn from filing and disapproved. No new policy of insurance shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this State until such new policy has been filed with the commissioner.
L.1979, c. 78, s. 1, eff. April 15, 1979.