(a) No self-insured employee welfare benefit plan, issued or renewed on or after the effective date of this section, which provides coverage for an employee and one or more covered persons dependent upon such employee and provides for an extension of coverage for any period following a termination of employment of the employee, shall fail to provide that such extension of coverage shall apply to dependents upon the same terms and conditions precedent as applied to the covered employee, for the same period of time, subject to payment of premiums, if any, as required by the terms of the policy and subject to any limitations or conditions set forth in any applicable collective-bargaining agreement. All such plans entered into or renewed on or after the effective date of this section shall be construed to be in compliance with this section, and any provision in any such plan which is in conflict with this section shall be of no force or effect.
(b) A plan contract which provides benefits that accrue after a certain time of confinement in a health care facility shall specify what constitutes a day of confinement or the number of consecutive hours of confinement which are requisite to the commencement of benefits.
(c) As used in subdivisions (a) and (b), “self-insured employee welfare benefit plan” has the same meaning as that specified in subdivision (d) of Section 10121.
(Amended by Stats. 1978, Ch. 648.)