Nevada Division of Insurance Looks to Amend Consumer Privacy Regulation

The Nevada Division of Insurance is considering ways to tweak its consumer privacy regulation so that it no longer runs contrary to state law.

Nevada’s proposed privacy regulation-which spells out insurers’ maintenance and disclosure of nonpublic, personal financial information-needs to be amended because it applies to workers’ compensation insurance and third-party claimants, which are not included in the provisions of the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act, according to the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII).

The state law, effective Oct. 1, gives the insurance department the authority to adopt privacy regulations but specifies that those regulations must be consistent with GLB, Sam Sorich, vice president and western regional manager of the NAII, told division officials during a pre-hearing workshop on the issue.

Nevada Insurance Commissioner Alice Molasky-Arman delayed the public hearing, scheduled to begin after the workshop, until January. Sorich asked the department to strike the workers’ compensation insurance and third-party claimant provisions, which will bring Nevada’s privacy regulation in compliance with state law.

In addition, Sorich asked the department to repeal the state’s existing privacy regulations. Otherwise, insurers will be forced to comply with two sets of requirements that establish different, inconsistent rules for the disclosure of personal information, “opt-out” requirements, and the content and timing of notices, he said.

Sorich commended the insurance division for deleting from its original proposal a requirement to have the regulation also apply to health information.

Topics Legislation