The following standards are applicable to all Medicare supplement contracts delivered or issued for delivery in this state with an effective date on or after June 1, 2010. No contract may be advertised, solicited, delivered, or issued for delivery in this state as a Medicare supplement contract unless it complies with these benefit standards. No issuer may offer any 1990 standardized Medicare supplement contract for sale with an effective date on or after June 1, 2010. Benefit standards applicable to Medicare supplement contracts issued with an effective date before June 1, 2010, remain subject to the requirements of Section 1358.8. (a) The following general standards apply to Medicare supplement contracts and are in addition to all other requirements of this article. (1) A Medicare supplement contract shall not exclude or limit benefits for losses incurred more than six months from the effective date of coverage because it involved a preexisting condition. The contract shall not define a preexisting condition more restrictively than a condition for which medical advice was given or treatment was recommended by, or received from, a physician within six months before the effective date of coverage. (2) A Medicare supplement contract shall not indemnify against losses resulting from sickness on a different basis than losses resulting from accidents. (3) A Medicare supplement contract shall provide that benefits designed to cover cost-sharing amounts under Medicare will be changed automatically to coincide with any changes in the applicable Medicare deductible, copayment, or coinsurance amounts. Prepaid or periodic charges may be modified to correspond with those changes. (4) A Medicare supplement contract shall not provide for termination of coverage of a spouse solely because of the occurrence of an event specified for termination of coverage of the enrollee or subscriber, other than the nonpayment of prepaid or periodic charges. (5) Each Medicare supplement contract shall be guaranteed renewable. (A) The issuer shall not cancel or nonrenew the contract solely on the ground of health status of the individual. (B) The issuer shall not cancel or nonrenew the contract for any reason other than nonpayment of prepaid or periodic charges or misrepresentation of the risk by the applicant that is shown by the plan to be material to the acceptance for coverage. The contestability period for Medicare supplement contracts shall be two years. (C) If the Medicare supplement contract is terminated by the group contractholder and is not replaced as provided under subparagraph (E), the issuer shall offer enrollees or subscribers an individual Medicare supplement contract which, at the option of the enrollee or subscriber, does one of the following: (i) Provides for continuation of the benefits contained in the group contract. (ii) Provides for benefits that otherwise meet the requirements of one of the standardized contracts defined in this article. (D) If an individual is an enrollee or subscriber in a group Medicare supplement contract and the individual terminates membership in the group, the issuer shall do one of the following: (i) Offer the enrollee or subscriber the conversion opportunity described in subparagraph (C). (ii) At the option of the group contractholder, offer the enrollee or subscriber continuation of coverage under the group contract. (E) (i) If a group Medicare supplement contract is replaced by another group Medicare supplement contract purchased by the same group contractholder, the issuer of the replacement contract shall offer coverage to all persons covered under the old group contract on its date of termination. Coverage under the new contract shall not result in any exclusion for preexisting conditions that would have been covered under the group contract being replaced. (ii) If a Medicare supplement contract replaces another Medicare supplement contract that has been in force for six months or more, the replacing
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