NAMIC Will Join ACLI Vermont Privacy Suit

By Jim Connolly

NU Online News Service, Jan. 21, 3:12 p.m. EST? A property-casualty insurers trade organization said it has nearly made up its mind to join a proposed lawsuit by the American Council of Life Insurers against Vermont's new consumer privacy regulations.

A spokesman for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies in Indianapolis, confirmed the groups intention to join the suit that an ACLI official said will be filed late this month in Washington.

Additionally, Kathleen Jensen, insurance services counsel with the National Association of Independent Insurers in Des Plaines, Ill., said her group is 95 now percent certain that it will join in the suit but needs final assurance that members would approve of the step.

Insurers oppose a regulation that the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration put in place to conform with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.

In particular, they oppose an opt-in requirement for non-affiliates sharing information such as credit worthiness and personal characteristics.

The department has maintained that it is trying to establish standards similar to those the state requires for banks.

An opt-in requires a consumer to give permission before an insurer can disseminate any information. An opt-out automatically permits use of the information unless a consumer states affirmatively that they do not want their non-public information made use of.

Ms. Jensen at NAII said that the opt-in provision is one concern but that another concern is the wording of privacy notices.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., requires a privacy notice for all nonpublic personal financial information collected, said Ms. Jensen. But the language in the Vermont regulation requires a notice for nonpublic personal information which includes health information, she continued.

Consequently, she said, companies would have to send a separate notice to Vermont policyholders than they would for states using the NAIC language.

In California, another state that insurers are watching closely to see how privacy standards develop, Ms. Jensen said that NAII is preparing comments on proposed regulation, RH-01018269, that will be discussed Feb. 8 at a hearing by the California insurance Department.

The proposed regulation would include workers compensation under its auspices, a position the NAII opposes, Ms. Jensen said.

The Alliance of American Insurers in Downers Grove, Ill., also opposes the proposed regulation in its current draft.

Among its concerns are a new "duty of confidentiality and care" which is created and which includes a "minimum amount necessary" limitation upon both financial and medical record disclosures.

And the American Insurance Association is watching a bill in the California legislature that was introduced by Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. Sen. bill 773, bill introduced by State Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, will also get consideration this year after failing to move during the last session, officials said.

AIA maintains that whatever bill proceeds, it is important to make sure that uniformity is taken into consideration, according to Nicole Mahrt, an AIA spokeswoman.

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NAMIC Will Join ACLI Vermont Privacy Suit

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