As used in this chapter:

(A) "Alliance" or "small employer health care alliance" means an existing or newly created organization that has been granted a certificate of authority by the superintendent of insurance under section 1731.021 of the Revised Code and that is either of the following:

(1) A chamber of commerce, trade association, professional organization, or any other organization that has all of the following characteristics:

(a) Is a nonprofit corporation or association;

(b) Has members that include or are exclusively small employers;

(c) Sponsors or is part of a program to assist such small employer members to obtain coverage for their employees under one or more health benefit plans;

(d) Except as provided in division (A)(1)(e) of this section, is not directly or indirectly controlled, through voting membership, representation on its governing board, or otherwise, by any insurance company, person, firm, or corporation that sells insurance, any provider, or by persons who are officers, trustees, or directors of such enterprises, or by any combination of such enterprises or persons.

(e) Division (A)(1)(d) of this section does not apply to an organization that is comprised of members who are either insurance agents or providers, that is controlled by the organization's members or by the organization itself, and that elects to offer health insurance exclusively to any or all of the following:

(i) Employees and retirees of the organization;

(ii) Insurance agents and providers that are members of the organization;

(iii) Employees and retirees of the agents or providers specified in division (A)(1)(e)(ii) of this section;

(iv) Families and dependents of the employees, providers, agents, and retirees specified in divisions (A)(1)(e)(i), (A)(1)(e)(ii), and (A)(1)(e)(iii) of this section.

(2) A nonprofit corporation controlled by one or more organizations described in division (A)(1) of this section.

(B) "Alliance program" or "alliance health care program" means a program sponsored by a small employer health care alliance that assists small employer members of such small employer health care alliance or any other small employer health care alliance to obtain coverage for their employees under one or more health benefit plans, and that includes at least one agreement between a small employer health care alliance and an insurer that contains the insurer's agreement to offer and sell one or more health benefit plans to such small employers and contains all of the other features required under section 1731.04 of the Revised Code.

(C) "Eligible employees, retirees, their dependents, and members of their families," as used together or separately, means the active employees of a small employer, or retired former employees of a small employer or predecessor firm or organization, their dependents or members of their families, who are eligible for coverage under the terms of the applicable alliance program.

(D) "Enrolled small employer" or "enrolled employer" means a small employer that has obtained coverage for its eligible employees from an insurer under an alliance program.

(E) "Health benefit plan" means any hospital or medical expense policy of insurance or a health care plan provided by an insurer, including a health insuring corporation plan, provided by or through an insurer, or any combination thereof. "Health benefit plan" does not include any of the following:

(1) A policy covering only accident, credit, dental, disability income, long-term care, hospital indemnity, medicare supplement, specified disease, or vision care, except where any of the foregoing is offered as an addition, indorsement, or rider to a health benefit plan;

(2) Coverage issued as a supplement to liability insurance, insurance arising out of a workers' compensation or similar law, automobile medical-payment insurance, or insurance under which benefits are payable with or without regard to fault and which is statutorily required to be contained in any liability insurance policy or equivalent self-insurance;

(3) Coverage issued by a health insuring corporation authorized to offer supplemental health care services only.

(F) "Insurer" means an insurance company authorized to do the business of sickness and accident insurance in this state or, for the purposes of this chapter, a health insuring corporation authorized to issue health care plans in this state.

(G) "Participants" or "beneficiaries" means those eligible employees, retirees, their dependents, and members of their families who are covered by health benefit plans provided by an insurer to enrolled small employers under an alliance program.

(H) "Provider" means a hospital, urgent care facility, nursing home, physician, podiatrist, dentist, pharmacist, chiropractor, certified registered nurse anesthetist, dietitian, or other health care provider licensed by this state, or group of such health care providers.

(I) "Qualified alliance program" means an alliance program under which health care benefits are provided to one thousand or more participants.

(J) "Small employer," regardless of its definition in any other chapter of the Revised Code, in this chapter means an employer that employs no more than five hundred full-time employees, at least a majority of whom are employed at locations within this state.

(1) For this purpose:

(a) Each entity that is controlled by, controls, or is under common control with, one or more other entities shall, together with such other entities, be considered to be a single employer.

(b) "Full-time employee" means a person who normally works at least twenty-five hours per week and at least forty weeks per year for the employer.

(c) An employer will be treated as having five hundred or fewer full-time employees on any day if, during the prior calendar year or any twelve consecutive months during the twenty-four full months immediately preceding that day, the mean number of full-time employees employed by the employer does not exceed five hundred .

(2) An employer that qualifies as a small employer for purposes of becoming an enrolled small employer continues to be treated as a small employer for purposes of this chapter until such time as it fails to meet the conditions described in division (J)(1) of this section for any period of thirty-six consecutive months after first becoming an enrolled small employer, unless earlier disqualified under the terms of the alliance program.

Effective Date: 10-29-2003; 03-23-2007 .