Sec. 1201.210. POLICY PROVISION: REINSTATEMENT. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), an individual accident and health insurance policy must contain the following provision:

"Reinstatement: If a renewal premium is not paid before the expiration of the period granted for the insured to make the payment, a subsequent acceptance of the premium by the insurer or any agent authorized by the insurer to accept the premium, without requiring in connection with the acceptance an application for reinstatement, reinstates the policy. However, if the insurer or authorized agent requires an application for reinstatement and issues a conditional receipt for the premium tendered, the policy will be reinstated on approval of the application by the insurer or, if the application is not approved, on the 45th day after the date of the conditional receipt unless the insurer before that date has notified the insured in writing of the insurer's disapproval of the application. The reinstated policy covers only loss resulting from an accidental injury sustained after the date of reinstatement and loss due to sickness that begins more than 10 days after the date of reinstatement. In all other respects the insured and insurer have the same rights under the reinstated policy as they had under the policy immediately before the due date of the defaulted premium, subject to any provisions endorsed in the policy or attached to the policy in connection with the reinstatement. Any premium accepted in connection with a reinstatement shall be applied to a period for which premium has not been previously paid, but not to any period more than 60 days before the date of reinstatement."

(b) The insurer may omit the last sentence of the provision required by Subsection (a) in a policy that provides that the insured is entitled to continue the policy in force by the timely payment of premiums until the insured reaches at least 50 years of age or, if the policy was issued after the insured reached 44 years of age, until at least the fifth anniversary of the policy's date of issuance.

Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1274, Sec. 3, eff. April 1, 2005.