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2001 SESSION

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HB 1283 Health insurance; discrimination against victims of abuse.

Introduced by: Vivian E. Watts | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Health insurance; discrimination against victims of abuse. Prohibits health carriers from denying, excluding or limiting coverage on the basis for an insured’s history of abuse. Health carriers must maintain confidential the insured’s personal information relating to abuse, and may only disclose it under certain limited circumstances. It is unfairly discriminatory for a health carrier to request information relating to an applicant's or insured's abuse status, or make use of that information, however obtained, except for the limited purposes of complying with legal obligations or verifying a person's claim to be a subject of abuse. A health carrier that takes an adverse action on the basis of a medical condition that is abuse-related must explain the reason for its action in writing and demonstrate that its action (i) does not have the purpose or effect of treating abuse status as a medical condition or underwriting criterion; (ii) is not based upon any actual or perceived correlation between a medical condition and abuse; (iii) is otherwise permissible by law and applies in the same manner and to the same extent to all applicants and insureds with a similar medical condition without regard to whether the condition or claim is abuse-related; and (iv) except for claim actions, is based on a determination that there is a correlation between the medical condition and a material increase in insurance risk.


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