The superintendent shall not authorize any proposed health care plan to solicit preliminary applications from subscribers or to transact business as a health care plan unless he finds after such investigation and hearings as he deems advisable that the proposed health care plan is qualified therefor as follows:

A. it shall be duly incorporated as a health care plan under the laws of a state governing incorporation of nonprofit corporations;

B. its sponsors shall have financial stability and its directors and officers shall be individuals of good personal and business reputation and integrity;

C. its proposed management shall possess experience and competence as to the business in which to engage;

D. it shall have ready access to health care facilities in this state reasonably sufficient to provide the health care services to be covered by its subscriber contracts, whether on service or indemnity bases;

E. it shall actually or prospectively have sufficient funds to finance preliminary solicitation of subscribers and to conduct its operations with reasonable margin of financial safety;

F. its proposed contracts to be offered subscribers shall be well drafted and provide substantial health care coverage and benefits at reasonable premium rates;

G. operation of the health care plan in the area of this state proposed to be served would be in the public interest and of convenience to its residents; and

H. if it [is] a newly formed health care plan, prior to being granted an initial certificate of authority to engage in business, it shall have applied for and received from the superintendent a preliminary permit to solicit subscribers' applications for health care contracts as proposed to be offered, and thereunder have solicited and received, within one year from date of the preliminary permit, applications for coverage of not less than one thousand individuals under such contracts together with payment in advance of one month's premium therefor or if it is a foreign health care plan with a certificate of authority from its state of domicile, it must already cover not less than one thousand individuals.

History: Laws 1984, ch. 127, § 879.3; 1987, ch. 259, § 30; 1999, ch. 133, § 3.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and it is not part of the law.

The 1999 amendment, effective June 18, 1999, substituted "shall" for "must" throughout the section; substituted "a" for "this" in Subsection A; inserted "if it a newly formed health care plan" at the beginning of Subsection H and added the language following "premium therefor" at the end of Subsection H.