The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 8 : Banking and Insurance

Chapter 107 : Health Insurance

Subchapter 006 : OTHER FORMS OF HEALTH COVERAGE

• § 4052. Blanket health insurance

  (a) Blanket health insurance is a form of health insurance that, to the extent permitted under federal law, is supplemental to major medical health insurance or provides coverage other than the payment of all or a portion of the cost of health care services or products, and that covers special groups of persons as follows:

  (1) under a policy or contract issued to any common carrier, which shall be deemed the policyholder, covering a group defined as all persons who may become passengers on such common carrier;

  (2) under a policy or contract issued to an employer, who shall be deemed the policyholder, covering any group of employees defined by reference to exceptional hazards incident to such employment;

  (3) under a policy or contract issued to a public school, independent school, or approved education program, as those terms are defined in 16 V.S.A. § 11; to a postsecondary school, as defined in 16 V.S.A. § 176(b)(1); or to a prequalified private prekindergarten provider, as defined in 16 V.S.A. § 829(a)(3), or to the head or principal of the school, program, or provider, who or which shall be deemed the policyholder, covering students or teachers, or both;

  (4) under a policy or contract issued in the name of any volunteer fire department, emergency medical services provider, or other such volunteer group, which shall be deemed the policyholder, covering all of the members of the department or group in connection with their department or group activities; or

  (5) under a policy or contract issued to any other substantially similar group that, in the discretion of the Commissioner and after the prior approval by the Commissioner of the group, may be subject to the issuance of a blanket health policy or contract.

  (b)(1) No blanket health insurance policy shall contain any provision relating to notice of claim, proofs of loss, time of payment of claims, or time within which legal action must be brought upon the policy that, in the opinion of the Commissioner, is less favorable to the persons insured than would be permitted by the provisions set forth in section 4029 of this title.

  (2) An individual application shall not be required from a person covered under a blanket health policy or contract, nor shall it be necessary for the insurer to furnish each person a certificate.

  (3) All benefits under any blanket health policy shall, unless for hospital and physician service or surgical benefits, be payable to the person insured, or to the person’s designated beneficiary or beneficiaries, or to the person’s estate, except that if the person insured is a minor, the benefits may be made payable to the minor’s parent, guardian, or other person actually supporting the minor.

  (4) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect the legal liability of policyholders for the death of, or injury to, any members of the group.

  (c) No blanket health insurance policy that provides coverage for the payment of all or a portion of the cost of health care services or products shall contain any provision that does not comply with a requirement of this title, or a rule adopted pursuant to this title applicable to health insurance, other than those requirements applicable to nongroup health insurance or small group health insurance. The Commissioner may waive the application to a blanket insurance policy of one or more of the health insurance requirements of this title, or a rule adopted pursuant to this title, if the requirement is not relevant to the types of risks and duration of risks insured against in the blanket insurance policy. (Recodified and amended 2025, No. 11, § 2, eff. September 1, 2025.)