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term life insurance hipaa authorization
The Government loves fancy names for bills, forms, and agencies.
IRS, CIA, SPAWARP (the last is made up but probably exists...my apologies to
SPAWARP).
As you're going through your
term life insurance application, you will come across a HIPAA authorization
form.
Let's look a little closer at a newer addition to the term life app and how
it applies to you.
HIPAA is a huge set of rules and regulations that deal with privacy, health
information, and portability of insurance among others.
It stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
and took effect in 2003.
It's a massive set of rules that follows ERISA, an equally massive sent of
rules.
Some of the HIPAA guidelines make sense such as removing social
security numbers from ID cards.
Anyone who has had a purse or wallet stolen can understand this move.
Others are less obvious in their aims or better yet, results but we take the
good with the bad.
How does HIPAA come into play when applying for life insurance (or health
insurance for that matter)?
HIPAA and Life Insurance Application
The main parameter that falls under HIPAA in our context deals with private
health information.
When you apply for life insurance, you must provide health information and
history to the
life insurance company as part of the life underwriting process.
HIPAA governs what the company can do with this information and what the
company cannot do.
HIPAA really comes into play for the average American when your private
health information is going from one entity (say a doctor) to another (life
insurance company, etc)
This is why you need to complete the HIPAA authorization when you sign up
with a new doctor.
You'll notice it's one of the forms needed.
You can always access applications through the quote here:
You may also receive updates of their HIPAA guidelines from time to time.
Specifically, the HIPAA authorization in a standard term life insurance
application allows the the insurance company to request medical information from
your doctor or medical providers.
It gives your approval for your physicians to release your medical records in
the allowed means described on the HIPAA authorization to the life insurance
company.
The company will then use this information to determine term life eligibility
and the offered health class (which directly ties into the
life insurance rate to be offered).
There's usually a time constraint on the information (i.e. 30 days) which
means that they can't indefinitely have access to your information. You can also
revoke the authorization at any time.
The carrier may have an option not to allow the revocation if your policy is
being contested (due to perceived fraud or misrepresentation, etc).
The form also has to specifically say who will receive the information and
for what use.
To Sign or Not to Sign
What if you don't want to sign the authorization?
Most carrier (if not all) will not proceed without the completed
HIPAA authorization.
This essentially means it's impossible to apply for life insurance without
the completed form.
The life companies essentially feel they are unable to make a decision with
incomplete information and do not want to risk the liability of violating HIPAA
privacy policies.
HIPAA was designed to protect you as the consumer so we feel confident that
signing the authorization does not expose you to undue privacy concerns.
Ultimately, we need the form in order to secure term life insurance
protection.
There's no cost for our assistance. Zero.
Ultimately, we want to find the policy you want to keep!
It's in our interest and yours.
Again, there is absolutely no cost to you for our services. Call
800-710-0455 Today!