Limited Protection Of Dependents' Personal Information In Group Insurance Matters

A group insurance policy often involves several parties, namely the insurance company, the plan administrator and the insured employee (or "member" of the plan), who rarely however has any negotiating power in this regard. In addition, it is often the case that a member's dependents will be eligible for benefits under the policy.

Administering a group insurance plan requires the disclosure and communication of various items of personal information that can be quite sensitive in nature. The information that must be submitted in order to be eligible for benefits generally consists of medical information and, potentially, in the case of a member's dependants, other personal information that they may be reluctant to disclose to the member. An example of this could be where a teenage girl wants to take contraceptives but doesn't want her father, the member, to know about it, or where a dependent spouse doesn't want the member to know that he or she is being treated for a