New York Adopts NAIC Model Privacy Regulation

The New York Department of Insurance issued emergency regulation Thursday in light of the Nov. 13 effective date of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, adopting the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Model Privacy Regulation and thus extending the effective date to July 1, 2001.

In achieving uniform regulations, New York revised its original approach concerning the treatment of commercial insurance policies by moving to adopt the provisions set forth in the NAIC model regulation. The NAIC regulation provides greater protection for information obtained from commercial insurance policies than provided for in companion federal regulations.

New York did modify the health provisions of the model, delaying the effective date to Dec. 31, 2001 in order to ease the transition to a new regulatory approach for health insurers and other regulated entities for the disclosure of health information. This is intended to accommodate a review of pending federal Health and Human Services regulations addressing privacy that are expected by the end of 2001.