Minnesota Session Laws - 1990, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1990 

                        CHAPTER 467-H.F.No. 2204 
           An act relating to insurance; clarifying an insurer's 
          duty to provide loss or claims experience data to an 
          insured; amending Minnesota Statutes 1989 Supplement, 
          sections 72A.20, subdivision 26; 72A.501, subdivision 
          1; and 72A.502, subdivision 9, and by adding a 
          subdivision. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1989 Supplement, section 
72A.20, subdivision 26, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 26.  [LOSS EXPERIENCE.] An insurer shall without cost 
to the insured provide an insured with the loss or claims 
experience of that insured for the current policy period and for 
the two policy periods preceding the current one for which the 
insurer has provided coverage, within 30 days of a request for 
the information by the policyholder.  Claims experience data 
must be provided to the insured in accordance with state and 
federal requirements regarding the confidentiality of medical 
data.  The insurer shall not be responsible for providing 
information without cost more often than once in a 12-month 
period.  The insurer is not required to provide the information 
if the policy covers the employee of more than one employer and 
the information is not maintained separately for each employer 
and not all employers request the data. 
    An insurer, health maintenance organization, or a 
third-party administrator may not request more than three years 
of loss or claims experience as a condition of submitting an 
application or providing coverage. 
    This subdivision does not apply to individual life and 
health insurance policies or personal automobile or homeowner's 
insurance policies. 
     Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1989 Supplement, section 
72A.501, subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
    Subdivision 1.  [REQUIREMENT; CONTENT.] An authorization 
used by an insurer, insurance-support organization, or insurance 
agent to disclose or collect personal or privileged information 
must be in writing and must meet the following requirements: 
    (1) is written in plain language; 
    (2) is dated; 
    (3) specifies the types of persons authorized to disclose 
information about the person; 
    (4) specifies the nature of the information authorized to 
be disclosed; 
    (5) names the insurer or insurance agent and identifies by 
generic reference representatives of the insurer to whom the 
person is authorizing information to be disclosed; 
    (6) specifies the purposes for which the information is 
collected; and 
    (7) specifies the length of time the authorization remains 
valid. 
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1989 Supplement, section 
72A.502, subdivision 9, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 9.  [GROUP POLICYHOLDER.] Personal or privileged 
information may be disclosed with without written authorization 
to a group policyholder only to report claims experience or 
conduct an audit of the insurer's or agent's operations or 
services, if the information disclosed is reasonably necessary 
for the group policyholder to conduct the review or audit. 
    Sec. 4.  Minnesota Statutes 1989 Supplement, section 
72A.502, is amended by adding a subdivision to read: 
    Subd. 11a.  [MERGER OR SALE.] Personal or privileged 
information may be disclosed to a party or representative of a 
party to a proposed or consummated sale, transfer, merger, or 
consolidation of all or part of the business of the insurer, 
agent, or insurance-support organization, without a written 
authorization provided: 
    (1) prior to the consummation of the sale, transfer, 
merger, or consolidation, only such information is disclosed as 
is reasonably necessary to enable the recipient to make business 
decisions about the merger, transfer, purchase, or 
consolidation; and 
    (2) the recipient agrees not to disclose the information 
unless the disclosure would otherwise be permitted by this 
section if made by an insurer, agent, or insurance-support 
organization. 
    Presented to the governor April 19, 1990 
    Signed by the governor April 20, 1990, 10:30 a.m.