Please note this is a correction to information included in the December Plugged In. Effective January 1, 2010, Arkansas mandated hearing aid coverage with an annual limit of $1,400 for individual medical, Short Term Medical and small group plans. Originally the limit was not subject to coinsurance, but the mandate has changed. The limit is not subject to deductible or copayments but is subject to coinsurance. We will mail the state bulletin to all producers.

Please note that we may not use HIPAA privacy rules as justification for not providing claim information (as required by Arkansas law) to employer groups with 25+ members. We will mail the state bulletin to all producers.

Idaho no longer requires dependents under the age of 25 to be full-time students. Therefore, policyholders may cover dependents through age 24 regardless of student status. Until our electronic systems are updated with this information, agents writing affected individual medical business in Idaho will need to submit applications manually, using part 1 of the TeleApp application or a long form paper application.

The Rating and Renewal Provisions Form must be given to all consumers in New Hampshire. Agents will be notified of this requirement. The form will be incorporated directly into the individual medical portfolio brochure (Form 29233-NH). Since the form will be part of the brochure, there will be no separate form available on Find a Form. Previous versions of the New Hampshire portfolio brochure (29233-GE) will be removed from Find a Form effective February 1.

Also effective February 1, the following forms will be removed from Find a Form. The information contained in them will be incorporated into the portfolio brochure.

29242-GE Choosing the Right Health Plan

29042 Condition-Specific Deductible Consumer Form

29252-GE CoreMed brochure

29998 Dental Insurance flyer

29234-GE HSA brochure

29250-GE MaxPlan brochure

28404 SuiteSolutions brochure

Effective February 1, Short Term Medical consumers must be supplied a copy of the Rating and Renewal Provisions Form (Form 30207). It will be included automatically with all Supply orders of 28411-NH, and it is available on Find a Form.

Please note that also effective February 1, four Short Term Medical forms will change. The optional benefits brochure will be Form 30140-NH, the mini brochure will be Form 29982-NH, the Health Saver brochure will be 30020-NH and the HealthSaver Comparison Grid is Form J-70653-NH.

Effective January 1, 2010, Ohio has amended its open enrollment provisions related to individual medical coverage and HIPAA federally eligible individuals. Please see assuranthealth.com/corp/ah/state/ohio for further details.

Federal
The federal government has expanded the COBRA/state continuation eligibility period through February 28, 2010. Any employee involuntarily terminated September 1, 2008, through February 28, 2010, may be eligible to participate in the premium subsidy program. Assurant Health will be notifying affected insureds of the expanded eligibility.

Some insureds currently involved in the premium subsidy program may be eligible to have their subsidy extended an additional six months. Assurant Health is identifying those insureds and will be contacting them with this information. Some individuals who previously exhausted their subsidies under the old guideline may be eligible for an additional subsidy payment. Assurant Health will contact these individuals with information about their rights.

Nebraska
Please be advised that Assurant Health is aware of the change in the dependent definition to age 30 for health plans in the state of Nebraska. In this state, Assurant Health plans are filed as a trust; therefore, this mandate does not apply to our plans in Nebraska.

Wisconsin
Wisconsin law requires that the Rating and Renewal Provisions Form (Form 50533) be presented to a small employer representative before completion of a small group application. Both the agent and the small employer representative must review and sign the form, and a copy of the signed form must be submitted with the completed application. Agents will be notified of this requirement.