Brief(1)
H.B. 2636 would amend one section of Kansas law dealing with reinsurance agreements. The bill would strike the words "policyholder and" to clarify that the interests of ceding insurance companies, not policyholders, are protected by trust funds created by reinsurance companies as prescribed by law.
The bill, as amended by Senate Committee, would mandate any individual or group health plan which provides coverage for accident and health services, as well as any nonprofit medical and hospital service corporation, to include coverage for prostate cancer screening. The mandate would apply to all policies delivered, issued for delivery, amended, or renewed in Kansas after July 1, 1998.
Specifically, the bill would require insurance coverage of, at least, a prostate specific antigen blood test and a digital rectal examination for all men over 50 and for men over 40 who are symptomatic or in a high risk category. The bill provides that deductibles, coinsurance, and other limitations that apply to other covered services would apply to the prostate cancer screening.
An additional Committee amendment clarifies that the prostate insurance mandate does not apply to Medicare supplemental policies, long-term care policies, or other specified accident coverage defined in rules and regulations of the Insurance Commissioner.
The Senate Committee of the Whole amendment clarifies that the mandate also does not apply to disease specific policies.
Background
H.B. 2636 was requested by the Insurance Commissioner whose representative explained that this technical change in the law would clarify that reinsurance trust funds are required of reinsurers to pay claims solely to ceding insurance companies. Including policyholders in reinsurance statutes, he indicated, was inappropriate and such references have been deleted from the model law of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners upon which the Kansas law was based.
Deleting reference to policyholders would have no impact on claims of policyholders since those claims would be made against the company that issued the policy of insurance.
The Senate Committee amendment inserts into H.B. 2636 the provisions of S.B. 409 as introduced by Senators Jones and Becker and passed earlier by the Senate.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.