Health Care Cost-sharing Consumer Protections

The bill defines a "health care cost-sharing arrangement" as a health care sharing ministry or medical cost-sharing community that collects funds from its members on a regular basis, at levels established by the arrangement, for purposes of sharing, covering, or defraying the medical costs of its members. A health care cost-sharing arrangement is required to:

• Report specified information to the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) regarding its operations, financial statements, membership, and medical bills submitted, paid, and denied;
• Provide certain disclosures on its website, in marketing materials, and to potential members; and
• Respond to requests for payment of medical expenses from health care providers within a period specified by the commissioner by rule.

If an insurance broker offers to enroll or enrolls individuals or groups in a health care cost-sharing arrangement, the broker must provide the same disclosures that a health care cost-sharing arrangement is required to provide.

The bill also prohibits a health care cost-sharing arrangement or insurance broker from offering or enrolling participants in the arrangement during the annual open enrollment period for health benefit plans.

The commissioner is authorized to adopt rules to implement the data reporting, disclosure, and response time requirements and to impose fines for failure to comply with the requirements and prohibitions specified in the bill.

A person is prohibited from making, issuing, circulating, or causing to be made, issued, or circulated any statement or publication that misrepresents the medical cost-sharing benefits, advantages, conditions, or terms of any health care cost-sharing arrangement. The commissioner is authorized to issue an emergency, ex parte cease-and-desist order against a person the commissioner believes to be violating this prohibition if it appears to the commissioner that the alleged conduct is fraudulent, creates an immediate danger to public safety, or is causing or is reasonably expected to cause significant, imminent, and irreparable public injury. If a person violates the emergency order, the commissioner may impose a civil penalty, order restitution, or both.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)