Group health benefit plans; sponsoring associations, formation of benefits consortium.

Group health benefit plans; sponsoring associations; formation of benefits consortium. Provides that sponsoring associations, including self-funded multiple employer welfare arrangements, mayprovide health benefit plans for small employers in the form of atrust benefit consortium, subject to certain requirements. The billincludes conditions for qualifying as a sponsoring association, requirementsfor the formation of a trust benefits consortium, and provisionsto establish a board of trustees. Under the bill, such trust benefitsconsortium is subject to the federal Employee Retirement Income SecurityAct of 1974 (ERISA) and U.S. Department of Labor regulations and suchtrust shall not include certain words or terms in its name that areuniquely descriptive of insurance companies or business, and a statementto this effect is required to be included on the first page of thehealth benefit plan documents. A benefits consortium or sponsoringassociation is exempt from the requirements of the Virginia Life,Accident and Sickness Insurance Guaranty Association and exempt fromannual license taxes under the bill.