When you first enroll in a group health plan, the employer or insurance company may ask if you have any pre-existing conditions.  Or, if you make a claim during the first twelve months of coverage, the plan may look back to see whether it was for such a condition.  If so, it may try to exclude coverage for services related to that condition for a certain length of time.  However, federal and state laws protect you by placing limits on these pre-existing condition exclusion periods under group health plans.

• A group health plan can apply a pre-existing condition exclusion period only those conditions for which you actually received (or were recommended to receive) a diagnosis, treatment or medical advice within the 6 months immediately before you joined that plan. This period is also called the look back period.
• Group health plans cannot apply a pre-existing condition exclusion period for pregnancy, newborns or newly adopted children, children placed for adoption, or genetic information.
• Under group health plans, coverage for pre-existing conditions can be excluded only for a limited time. The maximum period is 12 months if you are in a group health plan. You will receive credit toward your pre-existing condition exclusion period for any previous continuous coverage.
• If you enroll late in your group health plan (after you are hired and not during a regular or special enrollment period), you may have a longer pre-existing condition exclusion period. If you are a late enrollee in a group health plan, you may have a pre-existing condition exclusion period or you may be excluded from all coverage for up to 12 months if your plan is a fully insured group health plan, or up to 18 months if your plan is a self-insured group health plan. If a pre-existing condition exclusion and waiting period are imposed, the combined length of time cannot exceed the applicable 12 or 18 months.
• When you join a new group health plan, the law protects you from a new pre-existing condition exclusion period, provided you maintain continuous creditable coverage. Most health insurance coverage is creditable coverage.

Coverage counts as continuous if it is not interrupted by a break of 63 or more days in a row.

What is creditable coverage?

Most health insurance counts as creditable coverage, including:

Children’s Health Insurance Program                             
Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHBP)                
Foreign National Coverage                                                  
Group health plan (including COBRA)                           
Indian Health Service                                                      
Individual health insurance                                              
Medicaid
Medicare                  
Military health coverage(CHAMPUS, TRICARE)
  State high-risk pools
Student health insurance
VA coverage

In most cases, you should get a certificate of creditable coverage when you leave a health plan.  You also can request certificates at other times.  If you cannot get one, you can submit other proof of prior coverage, such as old health plan ID cards or statements from your doctor showing bills paid by your health insurance plan.

In determining continuous coverage, employer-imposed waiting periods do not count as a break in coverage.  If your new plan imposes a pre-existing condition exclusion period, you can credit time under your prior continuous coverage toward it. If your employer requires a waiting period, the pre-existing condition exclusion period begins on the first day of the waiting period.

What is continuous coverage?

Take Art, who is diabetic.  Ajax Company covered him under its group health plan for 9 months, but he lost his job and health coverage. Then, 45 days later, Art found a new job at Beta Corporation and had health coverage for 3 more months.  Art changed jobs again. His new company, Charter, has a fully insured health plan that covers care for diabetes but excludes pre-existing conditions for 12 months.  Charter must cover Art’s diabetes care immediately, because his 12 months of prior continuous coverage are credited against the 12-month exclusion.

Now consider a slightly different situation.  Assume Art was uninsured for 90 days between his jobs at Ajax and Beta.  In this case, Charter will credit coverage only under Beta’s plan toward the 12-month pre-existing condition exclusion period.  Charter’s plan will begin paying for Art’s diabetes care in 9 months (12 months minus 3 months).  Art does not get credit for his coverage at Ajax since he had a break of more than 63 consecutive days.

• Your protections may differ if you move to a group health plan that offers more benefits than your old one did. Plans can look back to determine whether your previous health plan covered prescription drugs, mental health, substance abuse, dental care, or vision care. If you did not have continuous coverage for one or more of these categories of benefits, your new group health plan may impose a pre-existing condition exclusion period for that category. In Idaho, fully insured health plans cannot impose pre-existing condition exclusions in this manner.

Even if coverage is continuous, there may be an exclusion for certain benefits:

Sue needs prescription medication to control her blood pressure.  She had 2 years of continuous coverage under her employer’s group health plan, which did not cover prescription drugs.  Sue changes jobs, and her new employer’s self-insured plan does cover prescription drugs.  However, because her prior policy did not, the new plan refuses to cover her blood pressure medicine for 6 months.

Question: Is this permitted?

Answer: Yes.  However, the plan must pay for covered doctor visits, hospital care, and other services for Sue’s high blood pressure.  It also must pay for covered prescription drugs she needs for other conditions that were not pre-existing.

• No pre-existing condition exclusion period can be applied without appropriate notice. Your group health plan must inform you, in writing, if it intends to impose such a period. Also, if needed, it must help you get a certificate of creditable coverage from your old health plan.