AnnualMedicalReport.com Portrays MIB Inaccurately

In reviewing the AnnualMedicalReport.com website, MIB has found some misleading and inaccurate statements about MIB, as described below.

For a fee of $30, AnnualMedicalReport.com provides an “online service for insurance policyholders and applicants to order a copy of [their] medical report file from the nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies The Medical Information Bureau, Inc. (MIB), Ingenix Inc., and Milliman Inc.”

For $0, you may request a free copy of your MIB consumer file once per year directly from MIB using our toll free line at 866-692-6901. AnnualMedicalReport.com fails to tell you that you will not have any MIB consumer file unless you have applied for individually underwritten life, disability income, health or long-term care insurance from one of MIB’s 450 member companies (“Members”) within the past 7 years. Many consumers do not have an MIB file because they applied to an insurance company that was not an MIB member or they applied for insurance that was not individually underwritten (for example, group insurance or guaranteed issue life insurance) or they applied for insurance more than 7 years ago.

AnnualMedicalReport.com claims that “errors in these medical report files have cost policyholders thousands of dollars in higher premiums and enabled insurers to revoke coverage from families and children.”

MIB believes that this assertion is unfounded because MIB Members do not make underwriting decisions on the basis of MIB reports alone and we believe that MIB consumer files have a high degree of accuracy.

MIB Members (only MIB Member companies have access to MIB information) are strictly forbidden from using MIB information about you as the basis for determining your eligibility for insurance. MIB Members only use MIB’s information as an “alert” or “red flag,” which prompts them to obtain additional information through traditional underwriting tools and methods. MIB takes this restriction on the use of MIB information very, very seriously and it is one of the most important principles upon which MIB has successfully operated for over 107 years. If an insurance applicant answers an insurance application truthfully and completely, then he or she should have no worries about MIB. In other words, if an individual fully discloses his or her medical history to the Member insurer, then MIB does not alert the insurer to anything – the insurer already knows about the medical condition from the applicant’s own application. MIB Members can only obtain information about you when you have applied to them for insurance, you have received the MIB Pre-Notice and you have signed an authorization allowing them to do so.

MIB is committed to ensuring that its database of coded information is accurate, relevant to the underwriting process, and not obsolete. To that end, we have strict rules promoting the accuracy and integrity of the information that our Members report to MIB. In addition, MIB currently deletes information reported by member insurance companies after 7 years. We provide training to Members. We require Members to perform an annual self-audit and we conduct field audits on a regular basis. Further, each Member is required to adopt and implement internal procedures to cancel, correct or supplement any report (a report of your information from the Member company made to MIB) when it discovers or otherwise receives information indicating that such report was inaccurate or incomplete. Members may only report information from original medical or other sources, from official records (DMV), or from the individual (insurance applicant). Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), Members who report information to MIB are “furnishers” and they are required by law to take reasonable steps to promote the accuracy and integrity of the information reported to MIB. Out of all the free disclosures (MIB consumer files of individuals) that we provide, we find that only one-two percent (1-2%) are amended as a result of a consumer’s election to dispute their accuracy.

AnnualMedicalReport.com alleges that “personal data collected by the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) may include medical conditions, credit report history, driving records, criminal activity, drug use, sexual orientation, participation in hazardous sports, and personal or family genetic history.”

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, MIB is defined as a “nationwide specialty consumer reporting agency” because it is “consumer reporting agency” that issues “consumer reports” containing coded medical and avocational information, but not credit information. An MIB report and a credit report are two very different kinds of “consumer report.” For example, consumers may not obtain a credit score from MIB because MIB does not use any type of scoring system for credit or insurance eligibility. MIB does not have information about individuals’ credit histories and sexual orientation. MIB does not have genetic test results. Because MIB uses “codes,” as described below, MIB does not have the details of anyone’s criminal records. Moreover, MIB does not have any original medical records in its files.

MIB provides its Members with information significant to underwriting insurance applications in the form of medical and avocation "codes." [These codes can be thought of as a simple form of encryption that protect the confidentiality of an individual’s medical condition.] These codes signify different medical conditions and other conditions affecting the insurability of the applicant (typically dangerous hobbies) as verified by Members during the underwriting process. These codes do not indicate what action another member company took with respect to a previous application for insurance (approval, denial, approved with a substandard rating). Because MIB uses these codes and not medical records, it does not report the actual or complete details about a person's medical condition or problem.

AnnualMedicalReport.com purports to provide an online method by which individuals may request their MIB consumer file by completing and electronically signing a form bearing MIB’s name and logo.

This online form is based on MIB’s CD-3 form. However, AnnualMedicalReport.com never asked for nor received our permission to use and modify it through the addition of its own certification, signature lines, FCRA and ESIGN notices, and copyright notice (© AR, LLC. All Rights Reserved.). By letter dated May 10, 2010, MIB has asked AnnualMedicalReport.com to cease its use of this modified version of the MIB form. MIB believes that their modification of our form misleads consumers into believing that MIB endorses their methodology or their service. Of course, we do neither.

Unfortunately, MIB cannot provide consumers with their free annual MIB disclosure using a form purporting to have been signed electronically online at AnnualMedicalReport.com since we cannot verify the authenticity of the signatures or the method by which they have been signed. [Each individual listed on a request is notified of our position and advised to use our toll free line for free annual disclosure.] MIB also has concerns about whether AnnualMedicalReport.com may be allowing persons purporting to act as representatives for the subject individuals (for example, an attorney-in-fact acting under a power of attorney) to sign these forms electronically in the name of the subject individual without requiring proof of the agent’s authority to act for the individual. MIB believes that acceptance of such disclosure requests would compromise our responsibility to restrict the release of MIB consumer information (often highly sensitive medical information) only to the individual about whom it pertains.