A. The Commission shall, based on a morbidity study, promulgate seven-, fourteen- and thirty-day retroactive and nonretroactive credit accident and sickness insurance premium rates which will reasonably be expected to produce the loss ratio as required by subsection E of § 38.2-3725. These prima facie rates will be published by the Commission no later than September 1, 1992, and will be effective on or after January 1, 1993. After this date, the premium charged in connection with any credit accident and sickness insurance policy or certificate issued in this Commonwealth may not exceed the then-published prima facie rate as set forth in this section and as may be adjusted pursuant to § 38.2-3730.

The morbidity study shall be based on policies and certificates issued in this Commonwealth for the past three years, the premiums charged for those contracts and the experience produced by those contracts. The Commission may also take into consideration the reserves held on these contracts and the methods used to produce those reserves and any other information which the Commission in its discretion may consider necessary to produce a credible morbidity study.

B. The benefits provided by any credit accident and sickness insurance form shall be deemed reasonable in relation to the premium charged or to be charged if the rates do not exceed the rates initially published by the Commission pursuant to subsection A of this section, except as such rates are modified pursuant to the requirements of § 38.2-3730.

C. If premiums are paid on the basis of a premium rate per month per $1,000 of outstanding insured indebtedness, they shall be computed according to the following formula or according to a formula approved by the Commission which produces rates actuarially equivalent to the single premium rates:

Where Spn = Single Premium Rate per $100 of initial insured indebtedness repayable in n equal monthly installments.

Op = Monthly Outstanding Balance Premium Rate per $1,000.

n = Original repayment period, in months.

D. A credit accident and sickness insurance form may not be issued with a waiting period, retroactive or nonretroactive, which differs from the waiting periods set forth in this section.

E. The premium rates in subsection B shall apply to policies providing credit accident and sickness insurance to be issued with or without evidence of insurability, to be offered to all eligible debtors, and containing:

1. No provision excluding or denying a claim for disability resulting from preexisting conditions except for those conditions for which the insured debtor received medical advice, diagnosis or treatment within six months preceding the effective date of the debtor's coverage and which caused loss within the six months following the effective date of coverage. The effective date of coverage for each part of the insurance attributable to a different advance or charge to an open-end credit account is the date on which the advance or charge is posted to the plan account.

2. No other provision which excludes or restricts liability in the event of disability caused in a specific manner except that it may contain provisions excluding or restricting coverage in the event of normal pregnancy and intentionally self-inflicted injuries.

3. No actively-at-work requirement more restrictive than one requiring that the debtor be actively at work at a full-time gainful occupation on the effective date of coverage. "Full-time" means a regular work week of not less than thirty hours. A debtor shall be deemed to be actively at work if absent from work due solely to regular day off, holiday or paid vacation.

4. No age restrictions, or only age restrictions making ineligible for coverage debtors sixty-five or over at the time the indebtedness is incurred or debtors who will have attained age sixty-six or over on the maturity date of the indebtedness.

5. A daily benefit equal in amount to one-thirtieth of the monthly benefit payable under the policy for the indebtedness.

6. A definition of "disability" which provides that during the first twelve months of disability the insured shall be unable to perform the duties of his occupation at the time the disability occurred, and thereafter the duties of any occupation for which the insured is reasonably fitted by education, training or experience.

7. A provision written in connection with an open-end credit plan which may provide for the cessation of insurance or reduction in the amount of insurance upon attainment of an age not less than sixty-five.

F. Joint coverage on any of the bases in this section shall not exceed 165 percent of the rates applicable to that type of coverage.

1992, c. 586; 1995, c. 167.