Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 122.djvu/4105

 12 2 STA T .408 2 PUBLIC LA W 110 –3 81 —O CT. 9, 2008 ‘ ‘ (B)theda te onw h ic h su ch co v e r a g e wou l d otherwise ter m inate under the terms o f the p lan or health insurance coverage . ‘‘( 2 ) DEP E ND EN TCHIL DDE S C R I B ED. —A dependent child descri b ed in this paragraph is , with respect to a group health plan or health insurance coverage offered in connection with the plan, a beneficiar y under the plan who— ‘‘(A) is a dependent child, under the terms of the plan or coverage, of a participant or beneficiary under the plan or coverage and ‘‘(B) was enrolled in the plan or coverage, on the basis of being a student at a postsecondary educational institu - tion (as described in subsection (a)), immediately before the first day of the medically necessary leave of absence involved. ‘‘( 3 ) C ERTI F IC A TI O NB Y PHYSICIAN.— P aragraph ( 1 ) shall apply to a group health plan or health insurance coverage offered by an issuer in connection with such plan only if the plan or issuer of the coverage has received written certification by a treating physician of the dependent child which states that the child is suffering from a serious illness or in j ury and that the leave of absence (or other change of enrollment) described in subsection (a) is medically necessary. ‘‘(c) N OTICE.—A group health plan, and a health insurance issuer providing health insurance coverage in connection with a group health plan, shall include, with any notice regarding a re q uirement for certification of student status for coverage under the plan or coverage, a description of the terms of this section for continued coverage during medically necessary leaves of absence. S uch description shall be in language which is understandable to the typical plan participant. ‘‘(d) NO CHAN G E IN BENEFITS.—A dependent child whose bene- fits are continued under this section shall be entitled to the same benefits as if (during the medically necessary leave of absence) the child continued to be a covered student at the institution of higher education and was not on a medically necessary leave of absence. ‘‘(e) CONTIN U ED APPLICATION IN CASE OF CHANGED CO V - ERAGE.— I f— ‘‘(1) a dependent child of a participant or beneficiary is in a period of coverage under a group health plan or health insurance coverage offered in connection with such a plan, pursuant to a medically necessary leave of absence of the child described in subsection (b); ‘‘(2) the manner in which the participant or beneficiary is covered under the plan changes, whether through a change in health insurance coverage or health insurance issuer, a change between health insurance coverage and self-insured coverage, or otherwise; and ‘‘(3) the coverage as so changed continues to provide cov- erage of beneficiaries as dependent children, this section shall apply to coverage of the child under the changed coverage for the remainder of the period of the medically necessary leave of absence of the dependent child under the plan in the same manner as it would have applied if the changed coverage had been the previous coverage. ’ ’. Ap p licab ili ty.

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