Massachusetts Statutes

Section 45. The commissioner, or any person whom he may appoint, may examine any foreign or alien society transacting or applying for admission to transact business in this state. He may employ assistants, and he, or any person he may appoint, shall have free access to all books,…

Section 46. Pending, during or after an examination or investigation of a society, either domestic, foreign or alien, the commissioner shall make public no financial statement, report or finding, nor shall he permit to become public any financial statement, report or finding affe…

Section 47. No person shall cause or permit to be made, issued or circulated in any form— (a) Any misrepresentation or false or misleading statement concerning the terms, benefits or advantages of any fraternal insurance contract now issued or to be issued in the commonwealth, or…

Section 48. No society doing business in the commonwealth shall make or permit any unfair discrimination between insured members of the same class and equal expectation of life in the premiums charged for certificates of insurance, in the dividends or other benefits payable there…

Section 49. Every society organized or licensed under this chapter is hereby declared to be a charitable and benevolent institution, and all of its funds shall be exempt from all and every state, county, district, municipal and school tax other than taxes on real estate and offic…

Section 5. The principal office of any domestic society shall be located in the commonwealth. The meetings of its supreme legislative or governing body may be held in any state, district, province or territory wherein such society has at least five subordinate branches, and all b…

Section 50. Societies shall be governed by this chapter, and shall be exempt from all other provisions of the insurance laws of the commonwealth except sections sixteen, one hundred and sixty A, one hundred and sixty B, one hundred and seventy-eight to one hundred and eighty, inc…

Section 51. Nothing contained in this chapter shall be so construed as to affect or apply to— (a) Grand or subordinate lodges of societies, orders or associations doing business in the commonwealth on December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and fifty-eight, which provide benefits…

Section 52. Any person who willfully makes a false or fraudulent statement in or relating to an application for membership or for the purpose of obtaining money from or a benefit in any society, shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred d…

Section 53. The superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity, upon an information filed by the Attorney General at the relation of the commissioner, to restrain all violations of this chapter and to enforce compliance with the provisions thereof and payment of all fines, forf…

Section 54. Any contract of insurance or any benefit certificate made, issued, issued or delivered by any society in violation of any provision of this chapter, or any provision of its charter, articles of association, constitution or by-laws, shall nevertheless be valid and bind…

Section 55. Whoever solicits membership in any society not duly authorized to transact business in the commonwealth, or, whoever, for a person other than himself, or as an agent, solicitor, organizer, officer or other representative of any such society or of any local or subordin…

Section 56. Any society operating on the lodge system with a representative form of government whose rates are on a basis of mortality not lower than the national fraternal congress table as adopted by the national fraternal congress, August twenty-third, eighteen hundred and nin…

Section 6. A domestic fraternal benefit corporation may, with the approval of the commissioner, change the location of its place of business to another location in the commonwealth, or change the purposes for which it was incorporated so as to permit it to transact any business a…

Section 7. A domestic society may consolidate or merge with any other society by complying with the provisions of this section. It shall file with the commissioner— (a) A certified copy of the written contract containing in full the terms and conditions of the consolidation or me…

Section 8. Any domestic society may be converted and licensed as a mutual life insurance company by compliance with all the requirements of chapter one hundred and seventy-five relating to the financial requirements of mutual life insurance companies if such plan of conversion ha…

Section 9. A society may admit to benefit membership any person not less than fifteen years of age, nearest birthday, who has furnished evidence of insurability acceptable to the society. Any such member who shall apply for additional benefits more than six months after becoming …

Section 1. Any corporation organized under the laws of the commonwealth for the purpose of establishing, maintaining and operating a non-profit hospital service plan whereby hospital care and reimbursement for other health services may be provided by such corporation, or by a hos…

Section 10. Any plan whereby such a corporation agrees with a group of two or more persons or with the employer, employers or representatives of a group of two or more persons to furnish hospital benefits and reimbursement for other health services to said persons alone or to the…

Section 10A. Other provisions of this chapter and chapter one hundred and seventy-six G notwithstanding, any nonprofit hospital service corporation, either individually or by contract with a corporation formed under chapter one hundred and seventy-six B, one or more hospitals lic…

Section 11. The president, vice-president, if any, the secretary, assistant secretary, if any, the treasurer, and assistant treasurer, if any, shall be annually sworn and their oaths entered of record in the books of the non-profit hospital service corporation. Each director shal…

Section 12. When any such non-profit hospital service corporation publishes its assets it shall in the same connection and with equal conspicuousness publish its liabilities, both computed on the basis allowed for its annual statements.

Section 13. Any non-profit hospital service corporation may provide for the issuance to its employees of hospital service coverage, medical service coverage, and reimbursement for other health coverage. The term ''employee'' as used in this section shall include an officer.

Section 14. No non-profit hospital service corporation, or any officer or agent thereof, shall make, issue, circulate or use, or cause or permit to be made, issued, circulated or used, any written or oral statement misrepresenting the terms of any subscriber's contract issued or …

[There is no 176A:14A.]

Section 14B. No nonprofit hospital service corporation may, without the express and informed written consent of its subscriber or a covered family member of its subscriber, disclose any information it may have acquired from or about any such subscriber or covered family member pe…

Section 15. Acquisition costs in connection with the solicitation of subscribers, and the cost of administration shall at all times be limited to such amounts as the commissioner of insurance shall approve as adequate and reasonable, but in any event, such acquisition costs shall…

Section 16. With the approval of the commissioner of insurance, a corporation subject to this chapter, alone or with one or more nonprofit corporations, the real estate of which is exempt from taxation, may acquire real estate it reasonably expects to use in whole or in part for …

Section 17. Any dispute arising between a corporation subject to this chapter, and any hospital with which such corporation has a contract for hospital service as authorized by this chapter, may with the consent of both parties be submitted to the center for health information an…

Section 18. Every such corporation subject to this chapter shall annually, on or before the first day of March, file in the office of the commissioner of insurance a statement, verified by at least two of the principal officers of said corporation, showing its condition as of the…

Section 18A. In an account of its financial condition, a non-profit hospital service corporation may include as an asset available for the payment of losses electronic data processing equipment, provided that the cost of such equipment at the time of acquisition is at least one h…

Section 19. Every corporation subject to this chapter is hereby declared to be a charitable and benevolent corporation and its property shall be exempt from state, city, county, district and municipal taxes.

Section 1A. Any person residing in the commonwealth shall have the right to become a subscriber of a nonprofit hospital service corporation if the qualifications of such person meet those specified in the by-laws of such corporation; provided, however, that such corporation may, …

Section 1B. A nonprofit hospital service corporation governed by this chapter shall offer medicare supplemental group coverage to that group of medical assistance recipients designated from time to time by the department of public welfare. Such coverage shall be provided at a rat…

Section 1C. For purposes of this section, retroactive premium rate increase shall mean any premium rate increase based upon an actual approved rate which is assessed to a subscriber after any payment has been made by said subscriber based upon an estimated premium rate for such p…

Section 1D. Any corporation subject to this chapter may make contracts of reinsurance relating to the providing of medical or other health services or reimbursement thereof, but the costs of such reinsurance shall not inure to or otherwise affect the premiums charged for any poli…

Section 2. Persons desiring to form such a non-profit hospital service corporation shall incorporate as provided in section three of chapter one hundred and eighty. The board of directors of each such corporation shall consist of thirty-one members, three of whom shall be officer…

Section 20. Every non-profit hospital service corporation shall, within thirty days after the adoption of any amendment to its by-laws, file with the commissioner of insurance for his approval a copy of such amendment certified under its corporate seal by its secretary.

Section 21. The commissioner of insurance may require any non-profit hospital service corporation to submit for his inspection copies of any circular or other advertising matter issued by it in the commonwealth.

Section 22. All provisions of this chapter relative to the filing of subscriber contract forms with, and the approval of such forms by, the commissioner of insurance shall also apply to all forms of riders, endorsements and applications designed to be attached to such forms, and …

Section 23. If the commissioner of insurance, in this section called the commissioner, is satisfied, as to any corporation subject to this chapter that (1) it has failed to comply with the provisions of its charter, or (2) it is being operated for profit, or (3) it is fraudulentl…

Section 24. Every such corporation shall set aside at the end of each calendar year out of its surplus funds, if any, but not otherwise, a special contingent reserve fund in an amount equal to, for the first year, the sum of one half of its then surplus funds, over and above its …

Section 25. Upon written notice by a non-profit hospital service corporation of its appointment of a person to act as its agent whose compensation in whole or in part is computed on a commission basis, the commissioner of insurance, in this section called the commissioner shall, …

Section 26. No corporation subject to this chapter shall pay any salary, compensation or emolument to any officer, trustee or director thereof, nor any salary, compensation or emolument amounting in any year to more than twenty thousand dollars to any person, unless such payment …

Section 27. The pertinent provisions of section one hundred and thirty-eight A of chapter one hundred and seventy-five shall apply to deductions on payroll schedules from the salary of any state, county or municipal employee for the payment of the amount payable by such an employ…

Section 28. Whoever violates any provision of this chapter for which no other penalty is provided by law, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars.