KS House OK’s Bill Increasing Health, Financial Privacy
The Kansas House of Representatives in a near unanimous vote, 124-1, Wednesday approved a bill to increase the privacy protections of individual health and financial records.
The measure, HB-2480, tightens the privacy protections of the state’s four-year-old Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act with a blanket prohibition against the unauthorized disclosure of a person’s non-public personal health or financial information. It is expected to sail through the Senate, according to Sandy Praeger, Senate vice president and chairman of its Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee.
Senate action on the bill, an amalgamation of two measures that were introduced earlier in the year, is expected within the next 60 to 90 days. Governor Bill Graves is expected to sign it into law when it reaches his desk.
The legislation would prohibit insurance companies and their agents from renting, selling or trading a person’s private medical and financial data to both affiliated and unaffiliated third parties unless they obtain the “affirmative consent” of their customers after telling them who is seeking the information and why.
Besides authorizing the State Insurance Commission to develop implementing rules and regulations, the legislation would require insurance companies operating in the state to provide annual notices about their privacy policies, practices and procedures, to customers.
House Insurance Committee Chairman Representative Bob Tomlinson hailed the House action as “a significant step toward protecting Kansans from companies which would market our personal records for corporate profit.”
State Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius added that the measure would insure residents “that their bank or employer won’t be checking their medical records before approving a mortgage or offering a job.”
