Trade Groups Criticize NAIC's Privacy Proposals.A draft proposal on guarding health consumers' privacy drew criticism from some industry trade groups who would rather address financial privacy first. The proposal by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is an Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which seeks to organize the regulatory and supervisory efforts of the various state insurance commissioners from around the United States. Privacy Working Group incorporates medical privacy and financial privacy. Insurance trade associations said they wanted to put off health privacy issues for now. Generally, they said medical privacy issues required further analysis by the industry and the NAIC NAIC See National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC). as they seek to comply with provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. Modernization Act. They questioned the wisdom of the proposal as it now stands. Debra Ballen, executive vice president of the American Insurance Association, said the proposal would require "insurance companies to have two separate privacy policies-one for health and one for financial." Additionally, it would "place an unnecessary burden on insurers and will not benefit consumers;' she said. Ballen described the measure as "command and control legislation" on the part of NAIC. Roger Schmelzer, vice president for regulatory affairs Regulatory Affairs (RA), also called Government Affairs, is a profession within regulated industries, such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, energy, and banking. Regulatory Affairs professionals usually have responsibility for the following general areas: Bill Fisher William Fisher (born 23 October 1928 in New York City) is an American journalist and retired manager of development programmes. He is a regular contributor to the news agency Inter Press Service, for which he mainly covers issues of human rights, foreign policy, international , with the privacy council of the American Council of Life Insurers The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) is a Washington-based lobbying and trade group for the life insurance industry. ACLI represents 373 insurance companies that account for 93 percent of the U.S. life insurance industry's total assets. , said the council didn't object to protecting the medical as well as the financial privacy of the public. His concern was that the medical proposal would be "very different" from the privacy rules of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Noun 1. Department of Health and Human Services - the United States federal department that administers all federal programs dealing with health and welfare; created in 1979 Health and Human Services, HHS , spelling future problems for the states and the industry. The Health Insurance Association of America also didn't see value in mixing the two issues-medical and financial privacy. athleen Sebelius, ansas insurance commissioner and chairwoman of the Privacy Working Group, said companies must be aware of the federal government's interest in protecting the medical and financial information in the hands of insurance and financial businesses. "It can't be a surprise," Sebelius said. |
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