Utah Proposes Changing Privacy Regulation

The Utah Insurance Department is proposing to change its privacy regulation so that a third party involved in an insurance claim will be classified as a consumer rather than a customer of the insurer.

“Without this change, the third party claimant could establish an ongoing relationship with the insurer, which would possibly impose additional notice requirements on the insurer and raise the cost of insurance,” said Ann Weber, National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII) counsel. Weber previously had urged the department to make such a change since the reference to “customers” did not follow the model of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Weber also had previously asked the department to delete the provision for third party claimants from the regulation entirely, in accordance with the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act that required states to enact such a law.

The proposed change in the regulation retains the third party language, which Weber said she would again ask the department to delete.