You have applied for the insurance, but something is stressing you up. It can be a rejection or the delay of the application. You are rightfully worried, as the insurance company might have collected data from MIB and the report is not in your favor.
So, they will need more time to check you up for the requirements as insurance companies will not take a risk if your report is not as per the requirements.
Remember, no insurance company is flexible enough to take a risk if your report says otherwise. However, you may still find some ways to get it approved regardless of what report has to tell.
Now the Question is,
What MIB Report is About?
The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) report is to check the errors or misinterpretations that are mentioned in the insurance applications.
The information is provided by the applicant, but the company needs to cross-check the information especially about your health. It is effective for many companies, and they can reject your application based on this report.
Most people inquire about MIB when they have either applied for the insurance or they are looking for the one or they have been denied.
However, in this article, you learn what MIB is how the report by MIB group can affect your life insurance application.
Now, when you know some bits about the MIB report, you might think that what is MIB and how it works? So, read further and we tell you everything that you must know about the MIB especially for the insurance.
What is MIB?
MIB is the Medical Information Bureau. It is a non-profit group that contains the information of the consumers that have purchased insurance in their life before. Companies with the membership of MIB will be storing your information regarding health, repayments and other important things.
It is done to keep the information in the database and avoid any fraud in the future. So, anyone with the membership will be able to access the data whenever you apply for anther insurance for another time.
The main objective of MIB Company is to protect companies from fraud. It reduces the possibility of lies told by the applicant. So, the applicant should tell the truth about his health and income or they might have to face some severe consequences.
The main motive of the MIB is to check if the applicant is eligible for life insurance, health insurance or any disability insurance policy.
History of MIB
It was established in 1902. Insurance companies use them as a tool to prevent themselves from fraud and it leads them to come up with more affordable premium prices for their loyal customers.
According to research data, approximately 20% of data is available with MIB. People who applied for health, long-term care, or individual life insurance are the main entities who have their data with MIB.
Yes, it might worry you as your personal information is shared. However, you must know that personal information is only used for protection purposes, otherwise, all of your information is completely safe with MIB.
What Else You Need to Know about MIB for Life Insurance?
When it comes to life insurance, many people can lie. They can tell that their records are clean, but those records are not usually as simple as the company is expecting. The companies are investing an amount, and they may investigate the information an applicant is providing to get the life insurance.
So, if you are about to purchase long-term life insurance, health insurance or any of them, you may not try to lie about your records or anything else.
Now, here comes the MIB, it is already clear that it plays a vital role in the approval of life insurance. The only thing that you might don’t know about MIB is how it works and why it should be important for you?
Read further and have insightful information about the MIB for life insurance.
How Does it Work?
This is the main question that you might need an answer right at the moment you get to know about MIB. Take a plunge into it step by step, and you will have your answer.
- One has applied for the particular individual life insurance with the MIB member company.
- The company will inform you about recording and transferring your information to MIB for further usage.
- You will sign the authorization form permitting them to share your information.
- Your information will be shared with MIB in coded words. It is decided by the MIB to ensure the safety of your personal information.
- Later if you apply for other insurance with another company, they can get the record from MIB.
- If your report is different than the application, there are some conditions in which they will ask a few questions and if a problem persists, they might reject your application.
Who is Benefitting from MIB?
Mainly MIB is protecting insurers, policyholders and applicants. In short, MIB is only to save all the stakeholders from any kind of fraud.
People who lie on their application are the reason that sometimes the right people are also doubted. So, if you can have the application cross-check, it will be easy for the companies to evaluate the eligibility of the applicant.
Insurers will ask for the report from MIB and will assess the applications of life insurance for health, life, disability income, critical illness or long-term care insurance policies.
Member companies are allowed to access the information for evaluation purposes, and this is how MIB protects them from fraud.
Codes included in the MIB Report
We mentioned earlier that MIB uses codes to protect the privacy of personal information. It will include the codes for medical conditions, harmful hobbies or black marks on your driving record. This information is helpful for the insurers to evaluate the risk before offering you the insurance.
Also, it will help them in keeping the premiums as low as possible and detect the fraud.
However, the company is liable to notify you if the decision is made on the base of your MIB report.
So, if a company is not telling you the reason, you have all the right to inquire and ask questions. It falls under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and you must know your rights for it.
Information MIB Doesn’t Have
One thing that you must keep in mind is that not every company is a member of MIB, and it doesn’t have all the information. For example, they don’t have:
- Home or auto insurance application information.
- Any information you provided to a non-member of MIB.
- Life insurance information you bought through an employer.
- Data from applications that are as old as seven years before.
- The decision of the insurer that your application was accepted or denied.
- Information on the applicants who had insurance approved in their good health condition.
Having all this information is necessary for you and if you don’t know about it, there are chances that the company is fooling you. So, stay aware and stay safe.
Way to Get MIB Report?
MIB report is not only for insures. If you are applying for the application and you need to verify the information. You can also get the MIB report and confirm the information before applying.
- Go to the online website of MIB.
- Call at 1-866-692-6901. It is open Monday to Friday.
There are hardly any changes require because MIB is popular for its accuracy in the information. All this is only needed to ensure that information is correct and you will not have a problem because of the MIB report.
Can You Get Life Insurance if the MIB Report is Bad?
You can get life insurance even if the report is not in your favor.
Yes, there are non-member companies who have nothing to do with the MIB report and they will follow only some general ways to inspect your information.
So, if you think that MIB report can destroy your chances of life insurance, you may approach the companies that are not a member of MIB.
Moreover, you must educate yourself about the details and ask all the questions from an expert to have sincere advice. So, get as much information as you can about the insurance policy and its conditions.
Conclusion
In the end, just remember that the MIB report is effective. If it doesn’t match the information in the application, it can make the insurers to deny your application after asking a few questions.
So, it is better to provide your information honestly and avoid any issues regarding your application in the first place.
If you need help with life insurance, you can contact the experts and professionals. They can guide you about the conditions and every other thing that you might be missing or turning a blind eye to them for no reason.
