The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) is an association of many life and health insurance companies that share medical information and data through an etensive database. As a member of the MIB, an insurance company has access to medical information and insurance history of individuals throughout the country. Many insurance companies will submit all claims and insurance coverage data to a central database. By having access to this information an insurance company is able to obtain historical information about an applicant or insured member. One might compare their services to those of a credit bureau that tracks the financial and debt history of individuals so that this information may be accessed by other potential creditors. By having access to the medical history of an individual, the insurance company is able to protect themselves from concealed or omitted details on a health insurance application that will assist the underwriting process. Information provided by the Medical Information Bureau includes claims history, declination of previous applications for insurance, failure to pay premiums, history of continuous creditable coverage and fraudulent claims or applications. Although the purpose of the MIB is to provide information to insurance companies, consumers are entitled to review their personal information that is on record with the MIB. This information may be requested once per year at no charge. Not all persons will have their personal medical history on the Medical Information Bureau records, especially those that have not had health or life insurance within the past 7 years. It is also possible that your previous or current health insurance carrier did not report your claims and insurance data to the MIB, in which case this information would not be available on your free annual report. To request your MIB report, visit the Medical Information Bureau website at http://www.mib.com/html/req..
. or contact them at 866-692-6901. You will not be able to obtain medical information on behalf of another person unless you are a registered insurer and a member of the MIB.