Each small employer carrier shall actively market health benefit plan coverage, to eligible small employers in the state. A small employer carrier may not deny coverage to a small employer on the basis of the health status or claims experience of the small employer or its employees or dependents. A network plan is not required to offer coverage to an employer whose employees do no work or reside within the carrier’s established geographic service. A network plan may deny coverage to employers if it demonstrates it does not have the capacity to deliver services adequately to enrollees of any additional groups because of its obligations to existing group contract holders and enrollees, and if it is applying this denial of coverage uniformly to all employers without regard to the claims experience of those employers, and their employees and their dependents, or any health statusrelated factor relating to the employees and dependents.

Terms Used In South Dakota Codified Laws 58-18B-37

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • State: when used in context signifying a jurisdiction other than the State of South Dakota, a state, the District of Columbia, a territory, commonwealth, or possession of the United States of America, or a province of the Dominion of Canada. See South Dakota Codified Laws 58-1-2

Source: SL 1995, ch 281, § 32; SL 1997, ch 289, § 22; SL 1998, ch 289, § 20.