When you apply for life insurance, you are asked to sign a medical release form. This form allows your doctor to release medical records to the insurance company. It also provides a release to use the MIB or Medical Information Bureau. The MIB is where insurance companies keep basic information when people apply for insurance.
If you have further questions, or feel I could be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Life insurance underwriters can check medical records. Unless you have a chronic condition, most life insurance companies do not regularly check medical records due to expense. They do regularly check your pharmacy records and MIB to verify your answers on your life insurance application. None of this is done without your signing a HIPAA form on the application and the insurance company adhering to HPAA guidelines.
Absolutely. If you are applying for any meaningful amount of life insurance part of the underwriting process is checking your listing in the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) and it is not uncommon for a request for medical records to be made if more detailed information on an indicated illness or injury is uncovered in your MIB search. This is partly for the insurance carrier's protection and partly for the applicant's. The MIB is not perfect, after all humans input the information, and on rare occasions erroneous information gets into the system or the information turned up in the MIB is not detailed enough to allow the underwriting process to continue without the more detailed information that should be contained in your medical records. Of course, the life insurance carrier cannot get access to your medical records without your written consent and that is a standard part of the paperwork you will be completing when you apply for most life insurance policies.
Co-Founder, TermInsuranceBrokers.com, Goldenzweig Financial Group, Las Vegas, Nevada
Yes - life insurance companies can check medical records when you apply for coverage, regardless of whether you're applying for a fully underwritten program or a no-exam life insurance program. The reason they can do this is because you are granting them access when you apply for coverage by signing a HIPAA authorization form.
HIPAA was created to help protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information. The HIPAA form authorizes the carrier to obtain needed medical information for the purposes of underwriting your program.
Typically, the carriers may only order a copy of the records when you apply for a certain level of coverage or length of coverage because of the expense involved in doing so. For small policies (e.g. $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, etc.), carriers will generally feature more relaxed underwriting and have fewer requirements.
I hope the information is helpful - please feel free to contact me for help with your program or if you have any other questions. Thanks very much.
That is a great question! Not only can they, but they absolutely do. In almost every policy that you apply for will be a paragraph or clause that states you agree to give your consent to the companies search of your medical history and prescription records. It typically will have a waiver for two years of your HIPAA rights, and will tell you that an inquiry will be made to the MIB (medical Information Bureau). This is done to protect them from people that may have forgotten their health history, or that may be less than honest in their answers when applying. I hope that helps, thanks for asking!
Business Development Officer, T.D. McNeil Insurance Services, Fresno, California
If the underwriter feels that the information contained on the application is insufficient, they might order an attending physician’s statement. When you apply for life insurance you sign a form giving the company the liberty to take that step. This step clarifies issues; however it also lengthens the underwriting process and results in increased expenses. An amazing amount of information can be gathered by just listing the prescriptions that someone takes.
Agent Owner, Gilmore Insurance Services, Marysville, Washington State
Can a life insurance company check medical records? The answer is yes and they normally do as part of the underwriting process. Usually a company checks your health history and also takes blood and urine to check your current health too. Are there companies that don't do this? Yes there are. However, do not expect the cost of coverage to be low in those cases. The fewer questions an insurance company asks, the higher the premium.
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If you have further questions, or feel I could be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
HIPAA was created to help protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information. The HIPAA form authorizes the carrier to obtain needed medical information for the purposes of underwriting your program.
Typically, the carriers may only order a copy of the records when you apply for a certain level of coverage or length of coverage because of the expense involved in doing so. For small policies (e.g. $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, etc.), carriers will generally feature more relaxed underwriting and have fewer requirements.
I hope the information is helpful - please feel free to contact me for help with your program or if you have any other questions. Thanks very much.