44-710.19. Individual and group sickness and accident insurance; health maintenance organization contract; newly born child; coverage; when.

(1) All individual and group policies of sickness and accident insurance providing coverage on an expense-incurred basis and health maintenance organization contracts shall provide benefits for newly born children of the insured or subscriber from the moment of birth.

(2) The coverage for newly born children shall consist of coverage of injury or sickness including the necessary care and treatment of medically diagnosed congenital defects and birth abnormalities.

(3) A policy or contract may require that notification of birth of a newly born child and payment of the required premium or fees shall be furnished to the insurer or health maintenance organization within thirty-one days after the date of birth in order to have the coverage continue beyond such thirty-one-day period.

(4) The requirements of this section shall apply to all insurance policies and subscriber contracts delivered or issued for delivery in this state on or after January 1, 1995.

Source:Laws 1975, LB 28, § 1; Laws 1989, LB 92, § 148; Laws 1994, LB 978, § 20.

Annotations

This section requires that any insurance policy in force as to a covered newborn child shall provide coverage in the same manner that it does for other family members. It does not transform a services-incurred policy into an occurrence policy. Howard v. Blue Cross Blue Shield, 242 Neb. 150, 494 N.W.2d 99 (1993).