A. Requirements and procedures for licensing of health maintenance organization insurance producers shall be governed by the provisions of Chapter 59A, Articles 11 and 12 NMSA 1978 and any regulations adopted by the superintendent pertaining to those articles.

B. None of the following shall be required to hold a health maintenance organization insurance producer license:

(1) any regular salaried officer or employee of a health maintenance organization who devotes substantially all of that person's time to activities other than the taking or transmitting of applications or membership fees or premiums for health maintenance organization membership or who receives no commission or other compensation directly dependent upon the business obtained and who does not solicit or accept from the public applications for health maintenance organization membership;

(2) employers or their officers or employees or the trustees of any employee benefit plan to the extent that such employers, officers, employees or trustees are engaged in the administration or operation of any program of employee benefits involving the use of health maintenance organization memberships, if those employers, officers, employees or trustees are not compensated directly or indirectly by the health maintenance organization issuing the health maintenance organization memberships;

(3) banks or their officers and employees to the extent that such banks, officers and employees collect and remit charges by charging same against accounts of depositors on the orders of such depositors; or

(4) any person or the employee of any person who has contracted to provide administrative, management or health care services to a health maintenance organization and who is compensated for those services by the payment of an amount calculated as a percentage of the revenues, net income or profit of the health maintenance organization, if that method of compensation is the sole basis for subjecting that person or the employee of the person to the provisions of the Health Maintenance Organization Law.

C. The superintendent may by rule exempt certain classes of persons from the requirement of obtaining a license if:

(1) the functions they perform do not require special competence, trustworthiness or the regulatory surveillance made possible by licensing; or

(2) other existing safeguards make regulation unnecessary.

History: 1978 Comp., § 59A-46-17, enacted by Laws 1993, ch. 266, § 17; 2016, ch. 89, § 66.

Repeals and reenactments. — Laws 1993, ch. 266, § 43 repealed former 59A-46-17 NMSA 1978, as enacted by Laws 1984, ch. 127, § 864, related to suspension or revocation of certificate of authority, and Laws 1993, ch. 266, § 17 enacted a new section, effective January 1, 1994.

The 2016 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, replaced "agent" with "insurance producer" throughout the section; in Subsection A, after "pertaining", deleted "thereto" and added "to those articles"; and in Subsection B, Paragraph (1), after "substantially all of", deleted "his" and added "that person's", and in Paragraph (2), after "organization issuing", deleted "such" and added "the".

Severability. — Laws 2016, ch. 89, § 71 provided that if any part or application of Laws 2016, ch. 89 is held invalid, the remainder or its application to other situations or persons shall not be affected.