Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Privacy Insurance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee amends and releases bill exempting insurance support organizations from certain privacy law requirements
Summary
Assembly Bill 5017, amended to exempt insurance support organizations as a whole from specific notification and disclosure requirements under state privacy law, advanced out of committee after testimony from the National Insurance Crime Bureau and industry groups explaining the public‑safety and anti‑fraud functions these organizations provide.
The Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee voted to amend and release Assembly Bill 5017, which exempts certain personal information collected by insurance support organizations from specified notification and disclosure requirements under New Jersey’s privacy law. Committee amendments removed narrower language and provided that an insurance support organization, as a whole, is exempt from the cited statute’s requirements.
Eileen Key of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) testified that NICB serves as an information and investigative liaison used by law enforcement and insurers to detect and combat fraud. She said that in prior privacy legislation language changes had left insurance affiliates out of exemptions and that the committee amendment restores an exemption consistent with other states that have passed privacy laws. “Without access to the data they need, NICB can't help us protect consumers from fraud,” a committee witness said.
Gary Laspisa of Insurance Counsel of New Jersey and Christopher Hughes of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association also supported the bill on the record, saying the exemption allows insurers and law enforcement to continue sharing information needed to build fraud cases and protect consumers.
Committee members asked for examples of NICB reports and were told the details are better known to NICB practitioners; committee testimony included references to pattern detection and multi‑claim analysis as functions performed by NICB. The committee approved the amendment and released the bill in a roll-call vote; members recorded affirmative votes from Assemblyman McGuckin, Assemblyman DePhillips, Assemblyman Miller, Assemblywoman Simmons, Assemblyman Maranko, Vice Chair Danielson and Chair Tully.
The transcript does not provide the full statutory text of the exemption or an implementation timeline; witnesses said other states had preserved such exemptions when enacting privacy laws.
