Insurance Consumer Reports - Specialty Reports Series

The Fair Credit Reporting Act protects more than just consumer credit rights; but rather reports about our overall financial health. Reports that detail information on consumers for purposes other than credit are called Nationwide Specialty Consumer Reporting Agencies. These companies are industry specific and compile information geared toward certain industries. Their reports may be pulled by employers, insurance companies, banks, and landlords/property management companies. This post will focus on companies geared toward the insurance industry. And just as you're able to obtain a free credit reports from the three major Credit Reporting Agencies once a year; you can obtain a free report from these companies every 12 months as well.

MIB Group Inc. (formerly The Medical Information Bureau) is a nationwide specialty consumer reporting agency that collects and stores information about consumers regarding their individual life, health, long-term care, and disability insurance. Typically, if you have an MIB file, you should have applied for one of the insurance types mentioned within the last 7 years as an individual, not as a member of a group (think employer).

Therefore, if you have not applied for insurance as an individual, you should not have a report with MIB. The information in the report mirrors the information you would have inputted on the insurance application. It will also have information from your healthcare provider that lists medical conditions you may have. This report is used by insurance companies. Now, the law states that an insurance company cannot deny coverage or increase premiums to an applicant with pre-existing conditions, but having this report available definitely makes it difficult to abide by that law; namely the Affordable Care Act. Insurance companies state they use this report to see if applicants would be eligible for other types of insurance products they market. To see if you have an MIB report you can contact them directly; (866) 692-6901); you can also view their website: http://www.mib.com/request_your_record.html.

Prescription Drug History Reports are another form of nationwide specialty consumer reports used by the insurance industry to see the history of what kind of prescription drugs were purchased by consumers. The two companies that compile and store these records are IntelliScript and MedPoint. Prescription drug reports are kept for 5 years and details the drugs purchased, the dosage prescribed as well as refills given.

Armed with this information, insurers can determine the medical condition of an applicant, as well as determine the risk of insuring them. If a persons is denied insurance for any reason, they can request their specialty consumer report from both IntelliScript and MedPoint for answers. You can request a copy of your MedPoint report by calling (888) 206-0335; an IntelliScript report can be obtained by calling (877) 211-4816. Callers will have to provide their full name, date of birth, last four digits of their Social Security number and current zip code.

It is important to note that just as there are errors in our credit reports; there may be errors in our Medical Consumer Reports as well. We are, under the FCRA, allowed to dispute information reported by any of the companies mentioned above.  The instructions to dispute any information found in your reports are provided by the companies both over the phone and on their websites.