{"id":20979,"date":"2023-11-13T22:06:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T22:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thinkadvisor.com\/2023\/11\/13\/massmutual-paclife-and-state-farm-face-genetic-privacy-suits\/"},"modified":"2023-11-13T22:06:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T22:06:23","slug":"massmutual-paclife-and-state-farm-face-genetic-privacy-suits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2023\/11\/13\/massmutual-paclife-and-state-farm-face-genetic-privacy-suits\/","title":{"rendered":"MassMutual, PacLife and State Farm Face Genetic Privacy Suits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedblitz.com\/-\/832276652\/0\/thinkadvisor\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.thinkadvisor.com\/contrib\/content\/uploads\/sites\/415\/2023\/11\/2023-11-10-Illinois-Springfield-Capitol_Adobe_640x640.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.thinkadvisor.com\/contrib\/content\/uploads\/sites\/415\/2023\/11\/2023-11-10-Illinois-Springfield-Capitol_Adobe_640x640.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"first-para\">Three life insurers face lawsuits from consumers in Illinois who object to use of family history questions in life insurance underwriting.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs&nbsp;contend that use of family history questions violates the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act of 1998, or GIPA.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys with McGuire Law filed all three suits. The suits name affiliates of MassMutual, Pacific Life and State Farm as the defendants. All three plaintiffs are seeking class-action status.<\/p>\n<p>A representative from Pacific Life declined to comment on pending litigation. Representatives for MassMutual and State Farm&nbsp;did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GIPA:<\/strong>&nbsp;The federal Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act of 2008, or GINA, regulates how insurers in all states use genetic information, including information about people\u2019s family medical history.<\/p>\n<p>The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 also includes provisions that define genetic information and regulate its use.<\/p>\n<p>GINA&nbsp;provisions can hold down damages, and the courts have tended to limit plaintiffs\u2019 ability to use GINA as the basis for class-action lawsuits, according to an analysis by a team at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faegredrinker.com\/en\/insights\/publications\/2023\/10\/employers-beware-sudden-spike-in-class-actions-under-the-illinois-genetic-information-privacy-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Faegre Drinker<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three life insurers face lawsuits from consumers in Illinois who object to use of family history questions in life insurance underwriting. The plaintiffs&nbsp;contend that use of family history questions violates the Illinois Genetic Information&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/massmutual-paclife-and-state-farm-face-genetic-privacy-suits.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}