Free Oregon Life practice questions

Answer: D. Keep the authorization, or a copy of it, in the record of the applicant it concerns

A licensee must retain an individual's authorization, or a copy of it, in the record of the individual who is the subject of the personal information. An insurer is a licensee, so this insurer must keep the signed authorization or a copy in the applicant's record. Shredding it because the records have arrived defeats that duty. The statute does not direct the authorization to the director, and handing the original back to the applicant without keeping a copy leaves the insurer's record of the applicant without it.

Answer: D. Only the reinsurer, because the look-back reaches two years before the request

In responding to an access request, the insurer must disclose the identity, if recorded, of the persons to whom it disclosed the recorded personal information within two years before the request. The reinsurer disclosure, made 18 months before, falls inside that window; the disclosure made three years before falls outside it. The statute sets no look-back running to policy issue, requires no court order for this disclosure to the individual, and makes no exception for reinsurers. Where recipient identities were not recorded, the insurer instead names the insurers, producers, insurance-support organizations and other persons to whom such information is normally disclosed.

Answer: D. On the physician records it obtained, but not on the organization's report itself

An insurer or producer may not base an adverse underwriting decision, in whole or in part, on personal information that came from an insurance-support organization whose main source of information is insurers. The statute expressly allows a decision based on further personal information obtained as a result of what such an organization supplied. The physician records are that kind of further information, so they may support the decision. The report itself may not, either alone or as one of several reasons, because the bar reaches partial reliance.

Answer: B. It is not an adverse underwriting decision, but the insurer must still state the specific reasons

Oregon's definition of adverse underwriting decision includes a list of actions that are not adverse underwriting decisions, and the rescission of a policy is on that list. The same paragraph still requires the insurer or producer responsible for the action to give the applicant or policyholder the specific reason or reasons for it. Treating rescission as an adverse underwriting decision misreads the definition, which places rescission among the excluded actions. Saying no reasons are owed ignores the duty the definition attaches to those excluded actions. Placement with a residual market mechanism appears in the definition only for insurance other than life or health insurance, and it plays no part in how a rescission is treated.

Answer: D. It must provide an audit trail so the invoices, checks and statements behind summary data can be found

Or. Admin. R. 836-074-0045(5) requires a producer's recordkeeping system, whether electronic or manual, to provide an audit trail, so that the invoices, checks, statements and other details behind summary figures can be identified and produced on request, and so any transaction can be traced back to its source or forward to its final entry. That subsection expressly allows electronic systems, and it permits any accounting system that effectively isolates each trust account from operating accounts, which a single combined ledger does not do. Under section (2) the records are kept in Oregon unless the director gives written permission to keep them elsewhere, the reverse of an out-of-state requirement.

Answer: B. That the applicant may ask to be interviewed as part of the preparation of the report

Oregon law bars an insurer, producer or insurance-support organization from preparing or requesting an investigative consumer report in connection with an application unless the individual is told two things: that the individual may ask to be interviewed in connection with the report, and that the individual can receive a copy of the report by making a request under the access statute. A copy is therefore available on request, not sent automatically. The same section contemplates that an insurer or producer may prepare the report itself, in which case it must set up reasonable procedures to conduct an interview the individual requests, so preparation is not limited to support organizations. The interview is one the applicant may request; the section does not require the applicant to sit for one before others are contacted.

Answer: C. Within 30 business days from the date the request is received

The access statute gives an insurer, producer or insurance-support organization 30 business days, counted from the date it receives a written request, to tell the individual the nature and substance of the recorded information, let the individual see and copy it or obtain a copy by mail, identify recent recipients, and summarize the procedures for requesting correction. The clock runs in business days, not calendar days, and starts at receipt, not at mailing or postmark. The 21 business day figure belongs to a different provision, the insurer's deadline for furnishing reasons after a written request following an adverse underwriting decision, and 90 business days is the window in that provision for the consumer to make such a request.

Answer: D. Allowing applicants and policyholders to learn the reasons for any adverse underwriting decision

Among the purposes the statute lists is allowing insurance applicants and policyholders to find out the reasons for any adverse underwriting decision. The statute also aims to set standards for collecting, using and disclosing personal information and to balance the insurance business's need for that information against the public's need for fair information practices. It does not bar collection from other sources; the abbreviated privacy notice in ORS 746.620 tells consumers that information may come from people other than the consumer proposed for coverage. Nothing in the purpose statute addresses premium caps or guarantees coverage to every applicant.

Answer: A. Lena: her insurer sends every required privacy notice, and she gives personal information only to it

A producer is not subject to the privacy notice section when the insurer it acts for otherwise complies with that section and the producer discloses personal information to no one other than the insurer or its affiliate, or as otherwise authorized by law. Lena meets both conditions. Raj's insurer is not complying, so the first condition fails even though Raj shares only with the insurer. Tom's insurer is not complying either, because the statute requires notice to a new customer by the date the customer relationship is established, not only on request. Mia's insurer complies, but Mia discloses beyond the insurer, and the Oregon disclosure statute's condition for sharing with an unaffiliated marketer forbids passing along personal information.

Answer: B. Furnish the reasons within 21 business days from the date it receives the request

A consumer has 90 business days from the mailing of notice of an adverse underwriting decision to make a written request, so a request made 40 business days after mailing is timely. Once the request is received, the insurer must furnish, within 21 business days of receipt, the specific reasons in writing if they were not already given in writing, the specific items of personal and privileged information supporting them (subject to limited exceptions), and the names and addresses of the institutional sources. The 30 business day figure is the deadline under the separate access statute, and 90 business days measures the consumer's time to ask, not the insurer's time to answer.