What is the Medical Information Bureau?
Information provided by the Medical Information Bureau includes claims history, declination of previous applications for insurance, failure to pay premiums, history of continuous creditable coverage and fraudulent claims or applications. Although the purpose of the MIB is to provide information to insurance companies, consumers are entitled to review their personal information that is on record with the MIB. This information may be requested once per year at no charge. Not all persons will have their personal medical history on the Medical Information Bureau records, especially those that have not had health or life insurance within the past 7 years. It is also possible that your previous or current health insurance carrier did not report your claims and insurance data to the MIB, in which case this information would not be available on your free annual report. To request your MIB report, visit the Medical Information Bureau website at http://www.mib.com/html/request_your_record.html or contact them at 866-692-6901. You will not be able to obtain medical information on behalf of another person unless you are a registered insurer and a member of the MIB. 2 CommentsLeave a comment |
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What is the Medical Information Bureau?
The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) is an association of many life and health insurance companies that share medical information and data through an extensive database. As a member of the MIB, an insurance company has access to medical information and insurance history of individuals throughout the country. Many insurance companies will submit all claims and insurance coverage data to a central database. By having access to this information an insurance company is able to obtain historical information about an applicant or insured member. One might compare their services to those of a credit bureau that tracks the financial and debt history of individuals so that this information may be accessed by other potential creditors. By having access to the medical history of an individual, the insurance company is able to protect themselves from concealed or omitted details on a health insurance application that will assist the underwriting process.
On the MIB website, it says they will only have information on you if you’ve applied for individual health care in the past seven years. I have had group insurance for the past 7 years through my various employers but recently got laid off so I am applying for an individual plan.
Will I have a record on MIB if I’ve only been part of group plans?
Comment by Laurie — January 19, 2009 @ 10:20 am
When an application is received by a member company of the MIB, any of the information on the health coverage application that is of relevance to your longevity or health is sent to the MIB by the company. This includes information that is not on the application but is discovered during the underwriting process. Your information is classified in codes that identify the various medical conditions or medical tests that are done and reported by the members. There are also some codes on your file that are not related to your health. These codes are about any hazardous activities that you participate in, or your driving history if you have a history of accidents. MIB does not have any actual traffic reports on file, they only store the information that is submitted by the member companies.
Comment by Brad — June 21, 2009 @ 12:43 am