Information on Virginia Group Health Insurance Policies

Group health insurance is exactly what its name suggests - one insurance policy or plan covering a group of people. Fulfilling your insurance needs may prove relatively simple if your employer offers a group plan or a choice of plans. Group plans cover several people or groups under one policy. The group policyholder may be an association, business, or union with which you are affiliated, or it may be your employer.

Many group plans include provisions to include family members. When you enroll in a group plan, the group (your employer, association, etc.) is the policyholder, and, as an employee or group member, you receive a certificate or an evidence of coverage (EOC).

Insurers must offer Small Employers, (employers of two to fifty employees), guaranteed-issue group plans known as Small Employer Group Coverage. This coverage is available to small business employers regardless of the health claims experience of the employee group or the health status of an individual employee. Insurance companies and Managed Care Health Insurance Plans that offer coverage to Small Employers in Virginia must also make available the Essential and the Standard Health Benefit plans.

Many trade and professional associations offer their members insurance. Self-employed men and women often find association membership an attractive route to health insurance.

Note: Often, an insurer issues a group policy to a policyholder (i.e. a trust, association or group) located outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia. This means that Virginia's laws governing benefits may not apply to the out-of-state group policy, even though the insurance is sold to Virginians. If the group policy under which you are covered is issued outside of Virginia, and you have an inquiry or complaint about your coverage, you must direct that inquiry or complaint to the insurance department of the state in which the group policy was issued.