Insurers Can Offer Biometric Wearables Without 'Rebating': Connecticut

Life and health insurers can give consumers Apple Watch devices and Fitbit devices for use in health tracking programs  without getting into trouble with Connecticut insurance regulators, even if the insurers have failed to mention the devices in the policies.

Andrew Mais, the Connecticut insurance commissioner, has given that interpretation of Connecticut’s insurance rules in a new bulletin.

Resources

• A link to the Connecticut wearables bulletin is available here.
• A link an article about an effort by Iowa to update rebating rules is available here.

Connecticut, like other states, generally prohibits insurers and insurance producers from using premium rebates, or agent commission rebates, to induce consumers to buy or keep coverage.

Connecticut will let an insurer provide a “value-added service or program” for purposes of controlling losses and reducing rates, Mais writes in the bulletin.

The Connecticut department will let insurers provide value-added products and services for free, or at a discount, if the value-added items are related to the insurance, are filed for approval with the Connecticut Insurance Department; and are provided in a fair and nondiscriminatory manner to similar types of insureds, Mais writes.

Mais says the list of value-added items covered by that interpretation includes home sensors, telematic devices and biometric wearables.