1. Health insurance coverage subject to this chapter is renewable with respect to all eligible employees or their dependents, at the option of the small employer, except for one or more of the following reasons:

 a. The health insurance coverage sponsor fails to pay, or to make timely payment of, premiums or contributions pursuant to the terms of the health insurance coverage.
 b. The health insurance coverage sponsor performs an act or practice constituting fraud or makes an intentional misrepresentation of a material fact under the terms of the coverage.
 c. Noncompliance with the carrier‘s minimum participation requirements.
 d. Noncompliance with the carrier’s employer contribution requirements.
 e. A decision by the carrier to discontinue offering a particular type of health insurance coverage in the state‘s small employer market. Health insurance coverage may be discontinued by the carrier in that market only if the carrier does all of the following:

 (1) Provides advance notice of its decision to discontinue such plan to the commissioner. Notice to the commissioner, at a minimum, shall be no less than three days prior to the notice provided for in subparagraph (2) to affected small employers, participants, and beneficiaries.
 (2) Provides notice of its decision not to renew such plan to all affected small employers, participants, and beneficiaries no less than ninety days prior to the nonrenewal of the plan.
 (3) Offers to each plan sponsor of the discontinued coverage, the option to purchase any other coverage currently offered by the carrier to other employers in this state.
 (4) Acts uniformly, in opting to discontinue the coverage and in offering the option under subparagraph (3), without regard to the claims experience of the sponsors under the discontinued coverage or to a health status-related factor relating to any participants or beneficiaries covered or new participants or beneficiaries who may become eligible for the coverage.
 f. A decision by the carrier to discontinue offering and to cease to renew all of its health insurance coverage delivered or issued for delivery to small employers in this state. A carrier making such decision shall do all of the following:

 (1) Provide advance notice of its decision to discontinue such coverage to the commissioner. Notice to the commissioner, at a minimum, shall be no less than three days prior to the notice provided for in subparagraph (2) to affected small employers, participants, and beneficiaries.
 (2) Provide notice of its decision not to renew such coverage to all affected small employers, participants, and beneficiaries no less than one hundred eighty days prior to the nonrenewal of the coverage.
 (3) Discontinue all health insurance coverage issued or delivered for issuance to small employers in this state and cease renewal of such coverage.
 g. The membership of an employer in an association, which is the basis for the coverage which is provided through such association, ceases, but only if the termination of coverage under this paragraph occurs uniformly without regard to any health status-related factor relating to any covered individual.
 h. The commissioner finds that the continuation of the coverage is not in the best interests of the policyholders or certificate holders, or would impair the carrier’s ability to meet its contractual obligations.
 i. At the time of coverage renewal, a carrier may modify the health insurance coverage for a product offered under group health insurance coverage in the small group market, for coverage that is available in such market other than only through one or more bona fide associations, if such modification is consistent with the laws of this state, and is effective on a uniform basis among group health insurance coverage with that product.

Terms Used In Iowa Code 513B.5

  • Carrier: means an entity subject to the insurance laws and regulations of this state, or subject to the jurisdiction of the commissioner, that contracts or offers to contract to provide, deliver, arrange for, pay for, or reimburse any of the costs of health care services, including an insurance company offering sickness and accident plans, a health maintenance organization, a nonprofit health service corporation, or any other entity providing a plan of health insurance, health benefits, or health services. See Iowa Code 513B.2
  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of insurance. See Iowa Code 513B.2
  • following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Group health insurance coverage: means health insurance coverage offered in connection with a group health plan. See Iowa Code 513B.2
  • Health insurance coverage: means benefits consisting of health care provided directly, through insurance or reimbursement, or otherwise and including items and services paid for as health care under a hospital or health service policy or certificate, hospital or health service plan contract, or health maintenance organization contract offered by a carrier. See Iowa Code 513B.2
  • Small employer: means a person actively engaged in business who, on at least fifty percent of the employer's working days during the preceding year, employed at least one and not more than fifty full-time equivalent eligible employees. See Iowa Code 513B.2
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
 2. A carrier that elects not to renew health insurance coverage under subsection 1, paragraph “f”, shall not write any new business in the small employer market in this state for a period of five years after the date of notice to the commissioner.
 3. This section, with respect to a carrier doing business in one established geographic service area of the state, applies only to such carrier’s operations in that service area.
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