16 Del. Admin. Code § 14000-14940
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is intended to guarantee the availability of health insurance coverage for employees and individuals and for limiting the use of preexisting condition restrictions. The law includes portability provisions intended to help ensure health care coverage for employees who move from one job to another. Before this law was passed, changing jobs could result in a temporary loss of comprehensive health coverage during the time it took to meet preexisting condition limitations.
HIPAA requires group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group health insurance coverage to reduce any preexisting condition limitation time period by the length of qualifying prior coverage an individual has for that condition. Qualifying prior coverage includes coverage under a group health plan, an individual health plan, Medicare, or Medicaid. The concept behind qualifying prior coverage is that individuals should be given credit for previous insurance when moving from one group plan to another.
Medicaid must send certificates of coverage to individuals upon request. The certificate must be sent to individuals who request one regardless of the status of the case (open or closed). We must also issue certificates automatically when an individual loses Medicaid coverage. The certificate will show time periods of Medicaid eligibility back to 7/1/96.
16 Del. Admin. Code § 14000-14940