Group Health Insurance Georgia

If you are a Georgia resident, there's a wide range health insurance alternatives from which you can choose. Health insurers sell private health plans to families, individuals and groups under the Georgia Department of Insurance regulations.

Small Group Health Insurance Regulations

Any company that has 2-50 employees is eligible for small employer group health insurance coverage. This coverage in Georgia is issued without bias, even if employees covered under the scheme have been declined coverage previously due to their past or present medical history.

Insurance carriers are allowed under Georgia insurance laws check for preexisting conditions till 6 months prior to the insurance. The law also allows insurers to impose a 12-month period of exclusion for pre-existing conditions on employees who did not have creditable coverage previously.

However, insurers are not allowed to impose pre-existing condition exclusion periods on pregnant employees, newborn children or newly adopted children. Insurers can offer creditable coverage to the applicants if there was no break in coverage for a period of 63 days in a row.

An employer who's deemed eligible to join the group health plan may impose a waiting period on employees before allowing them to sign up for health care coverage. If the group coverage is under an HMO plan, the insurance carrier also may impose an affiliation period that should be within 2 months.

COBRA and Continuation Coverage

Businesses with 20 or more employees have to follow COBRA regulations set by the federal government. These state that any departing employee is entitled to remain on the group health plan for a period of 18 months after leaving the company, provided that the group health plan stays intact.

An employee who is fired for gross misconduct is not eligible to continue under the COBRA program. However, if an employee resigns or was terminated by the company, that employee is still eligible for COBRA benefits. COBRA provides health coverage to persons, their beneficiaries, spouses and their dependents. Once relieved from the group, the COBRA recipient has to pay the entire insurance premium and 2% administrative costs.

For those former employees who have exhausted their COBRA coverage, alternate individual medical insurance options can be issues via a conversion option from their insurance company. This is a guaranteed issue insurance policy and the insurer cannot refuse to grant it.

Evaluate your health insurance options and needs and ask for your free online insurance quote today.