Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 38.2 > Chapter 6 - Insurance Information and Privacy Protection

• Accident and sickness insurance: means insurance against loss resulting from sickness, or from bodily injury or death by accident or accidental means, or from a combination of any or all of these perils. See Virginia Code 38.2-109
• Adverse underwriting decision: means :

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• affiliated: means a person that directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with another person. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Annuities: means all agreements to make periodic payments in specified or calculable sums pursuant to the terms of a contract for a stated period of time or for the life of the person or persons specified in the contract. See Virginia Code 38.2-106
• annuity: shall be deemed to include "variable annuity" and "modified guaranteed annuity" and shall be deemed to include a contract under which a lump sum cash settlement is an alternative to the option of periodic payments. See Virginia Code 38.2-106
• Applicant: means any person who seeks to contract for insurance coverage other than a person seeking group insurance that is not individually underwritten. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Attorney: means the person designated and authorized by subscribers as the attorney-in-fact having authority to obligate them on reciprocal insurance contracts. See Virginia Code 38.2-1201
• Authorized person: means a person known to and authorized by the licensee and determined to be necessary and appropriate to have access to the nonpublic information held by the licensee and its information systems. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• business of insurance: include solicitation, negotiations preliminary to execution, execution of an insurance contract, and the transaction of matters subsequent to execution of the contract and arising out of it. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Clear and conspicuous notice: means a notice that is reasonably understandable and designed to call attention to the nature and significance of the information in the notice. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Company: means any association, aggregate of individuals, business, corporation, individual, joint-stock company, Lloyds type of organization, organization, partnership, receiver, reciprocal or interinsurance exchange, trustee or society. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Consumer: means an individual, including applicants, policyholders, insureds, beneficiaries, claimants, and certificate holders, who is a resident of the Commonwealth and whose nonpublic information is in the possession, custody, or control of a licensee or an authorized person. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Consumer report: means any written, oral, or other communication of information bearing on a natural person's credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living that is used or expected to be used in connection with an insurance transaction. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Consumer reporting agency: means any person who:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Cybersecurity event: means an event resulting in unauthorized access to, disruption of, or misuse of an information system or nonpublic information in the possession, custody, or control of a licensee or an authorized person. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Declination of insurance coverage: means a denial, in whole or in part, by an insurance institution or agent of requested insurance coverage. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Encrypted: means the transformation of data into a form that results in a low probability of assigning meaning without the use of a protective process or key. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Fair Credit Reporting Act: A federal law, established in 1971 and revised in 1997, that gives consumers the right to see their credit records and correct any mistakes. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is a set of United States statutes added as Title VIII of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Its purpose is to ensure ethical practices in the collection of consumer debts and to provide consumers with an avenue for disputing and obtaining validation of debt information in order to ensure the information's accuracy. It is often used in conjunction with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. ^{Source: OCC}
• Financial information: means personal information other than medical record information or records of payment for the provision of health care to an individual. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Financial institution: means any institution the business of which is engaging in financial activities as described in Section 4(k) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Financial product or service: means any product or service that a financial holding company could offer by engaging in an activity that is financial in nature or incidental to such a financial activity under Section 4(k) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Health services plan: means any arrangement for offering or administering health services or similar or related services by a corporation licensed under Virginia Code 38.2-100
• HIPAA: means the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Individual: means any natural person who:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Information security program: means the administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that a licensee uses to access, collect, distribute, process, protect, store, use, transmit, dispose of, or otherwise handle nonpublic information. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Information system: means a discrete set of electronic information resources organized for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of electronic information, as well as any specialized system such as industrial or process control systems, telephone switching and private branch exchange systems, and environmental control systems. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Institutional source: means any person or governmental entity that provides information about an individual to an agent, insurance institution or insurance-support organization, other than:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Insurance institution: means any corporation, association, partnership, reciprocal exchange, inter-insurer, Lloyd's type of organization, fraternal benefit society, or other person engaged in the business of insurance, including health maintenance organizations, and health, legal, dental, and optometric service plans. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• insurance policies: shall include contracts of fidelity, indemnity, guaranty and suretyship. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Insurance transaction: means any transaction involving insurance primarily for personal, family, or household needs rather than business or professional needs that entails:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Insurance-support organization: means any person who regularly engages, in whole or in part, in the practice of assembling or collecting information about natural persons for the primary purpose of providing the information to an insurance institution or agent for insurance transactions, including (i) the furnishing of consumer reports or investigative consumer reports to an insurance institution or agent for use in connection with an insurance transaction or (ii) the collection of personal information from insurance institutions, agents or other insurance-support organizations for the purpose of detecting or preventing fraud, material misrepresentation or material nondisclosure in connection with insurance underwriting or insurance claim activity. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Insurer: means an insurance company. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Investigative consumer report: means a consumer report or a portion thereof in which information about a natural person's character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living is obtained through personal interviews with the person's neighbors, friends, associates, acquaintances, or others who may have knowledge concerning such items of information. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Joint marketing agreement: means a formal written contract pursuant to which an insurance institution jointly offers, endorses, or sponsors a financial product or service with another financial institution. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Licensee: means any person licensed, authorized to operate, or registered, or required to be licensed, authorized, or registered pursuant to the insurance laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Life insurance: includes annuities. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Medical professional: means any person licensed or certified to provide health care services to natural persons, including but not limited to, a physician, dentist, nurse, chiropractor, optometrist, physical or occupational therapist, social worker, clinical dietitian, clinical psychologist, licensed professional counselor, licensed marriage and family therapist, pharmacist, or speech therapist. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Medical-care institution: means any facility or institution that is licensed to provide health care services to natural persons, including but not limited to, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home-health agencies, medical clinics, rehabilitation agencies, and public-health agencies or health-maintenance organizations. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Medical-record information: means personal information that:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Nonaffiliated third party: means any person who is not an affiliate of an insurance institution but does not mean (i) an agent who is selling or servicing a product on behalf of the insurance institution or (ii) a person who is employed jointly by the insurance institution and the company that is not an affiliate. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Nonpublic information: means information that is not publicly available information and is:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-621

• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Person: means any association, aggregate of individuals, business, company, corporation, individual, joint-stock company, Lloyds type of organization, organization, partnership, receiver, reciprocal or interinsurance exchange, trustee or society. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Person: means any individual or any nongovernmental entity, including any nongovernmental partnership, corporation, branch, agency, or association. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• Personal information: includes an individual's name and address and medical-record information, but does not include (i) privileged information or (ii) any information that is publicly available. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Policyholder: means any person who:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Pretext interview: means an interview whereby a person, in an attempt to obtain information about a natural person, performs one or more of the following acts:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-602

• Privileged information: means any individually identifiable information that (i) relates to a claim for insurance benefits or a civil or criminal proceeding involving an individual, and (ii) is collected in connection with or in reasonable anticipation of a claim for insurance benefits or civil or criminal proceeding involving an individual. See Virginia Code 38.2-602
• Publicly available information: means any information that a licensee has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state, or local government records; widely distributed media; or disclosures to the general public that are required to be made by federal, state, or local law. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• rates: means any rate of premium, policy fee, membership fee or any other charge made by an insurer for or in connection with a contract or policy of insurance. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Reciprocal: means the aggregation of subscribers under a common name. See Virginia Code 38.2-1201
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Residual market mechanism: means an association, organization, or other entity defined, described, or provided for in the Virginia Automobile Insurance Plan as set forth in § Virginia Code 38.2-602
• State: means any commonwealth, state, territory, district or insular possession of the United States. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Third-party service provider: means (i) a person, not otherwise defined as a licensee, that contracts with a licensee to maintain, process, or store nonpublic information, or otherwise is permitted access to nonpublic information through its provision of services to the licensee or (ii) an insurance-support organization. See Virginia Code 38.2-621
• under common control with: means the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract other than a commercial contract for goods or nonmanagement services, or otherwise, unless the power is the result of an official position with or corporate office held by the person. See Virginia Code 38.2-602