She also reiterated her support for merger of the deposit insurance funds. Schroeder explained that although NAII is still reviewing the final privacy regulations many concerns outlined by the Association in an earlier draft have not been changed. The final regulations make it clear that property-casualty insurers are not covered directly. Unfortunately, the indirect impact can be just as great if medical providers are afraid to provide the information insurers need. Currently, property-casualty insurance companies operate under the requirements of state law with regard to obtaining medical information for the handling of claims.
Insurers generally obtain authorizations for auto first party and other lines of casualty insurance.
In most cases, the authorizations are of necessity broad rather than narrow because of the unique nature of the information needs of property-casualty insurers. For medical payments, insurers need information on current treatment as well as past treatment on conditions that impact the claim. For liability coverage, insurers generally do not pay directly for health care but are called upon by policyholders to provide defense in court and to pay settlements brought by third parties. Under the HHS final regulation, not only will multiple authorizations be needed to obtain information, but the information provided could be greatly limited solely at the discretion of the provider because the provider may release only the minimum necessary information. NAII submitted testimony earlier this year on the importance of not upsetting the carefully balanced system of obtaining and sharing of information under state law.