NAII Says Health Information in Proposed Iowa Privacy Law Would Cause Confusion, Frustration

Inclusion of health information in a proposed state regulation in Iowa on consumer privacy could cause confusion and frustration for consumers and force agents to comply with two different privacy standards plus add to insurance costs, according to the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII).

Including health information in the regulation is not consistent with the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act and therefore is contrary to state law that says the two should be consistent. NAII Counsel Ann Weber expressed those views in a letter to Iowa Deputy Insurance Commissioner Susan Voss.

If federal health information standards are different from those in the Iowa regulation, “property/casualty insurers will face having to comply with two different privacy standards,” Weber said. “That entails additional and unnecessary costs for insurers.” It most likely also entails problems for the consumer, such as multiple authorization forms for release of the same information, duplicate but inconsistent notices on privacy protection policies, and delay in claims payments because necessary information takes longer to obtain.

“Additionally, the proposed regulation is not limited to the sharing of health information with non-affiliated third parties for marketing purposes, as is GLB for financial information.” Property and casualty insurance companies are concerned about health privacy, she said. Those companies are not in the business of collecting and sharing personal health information.

“Insurers need access to health information to settle certain claims,” Weber asserted. “Privacy health regulation for property and casualty insurers would make access to needed information to settle a claim difficult and would lengthen the time to settle a claim.”

Topics Legislation Iowa Property Casualty