A nonprofit corporation organized under Title 15 of the Revised Statutes for the purpose of establishing, maintaining and operating a nonprofit dental service plan, as described in section 2(a) of this act, intending to do so as a dental service corporation certified under and thereby subject to the provisions of this act, shall seek certification therefor by application to the commissioner. The application of such a corporation shall include a certified copy of its certificate of incorporation, a copy of its by-laws certified by the lawful custodian of the original, and a statement in such form and detail as the commissioner shall prescribe, showing its financial condition, its proposed methods and places of operation, and such other matters as the commissioner shall prescribe, signed and sworn to by its president and secretary or other proper officers. If the commissioner is satisfied, on the basis of examination or otherwise that such corporation is organized without capital stock and not for pecuniary profit and has complied with the requirements of this act and that its condition or methods of operation are not such as would render its operations hazardous to the public or its subscribers, the commissioner shall issue a certificate of authority to such corporation as a dental service corporation of this State. A corporation to which a certificate of authority has been issued under this act thenceforth shall be subject in all its activities to the provisions of this act as long as the certificate of authority as issued or thereafter amended remains in effect. No change in, or amendment to, or alteration in, addition to, or substitution of any document, instrument or other papers so filed with the commissioner shall become operative or effective until the same shall also have been filed with the commissioner in a similar manner. No certificate of authority shall be issued to any corporation not incorporated as a corporation without capital stock and not for pecuniary profit under the laws of this State, or to any corporation which, prior to or pending its application for such certificate, has solicited a subscriber or issued a subscription certificate. No dental service corporation shall solicit a subscriber or issue a subscription certificate until its board of trustees has been fully constituted as provided in this act.
N.J.S. § 17:48C-4