The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) has strongly refuted claims that NHS data covering 47 million patients was sold to insurers and used to hike critical illness insurance premium.
The denial follows front page allegations in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph. The IFoA has today issued a complete rebuttal of the story saying that the aim of the research paper at the centre of the story was to improve the accuracy of pricing and in no way caused insurance price rises.
It says the research used anonymised Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data from the NHS that was readily available to organisations looking to further critical illness research.
It stresses that individuals cannot be recognised from this data and that the source data for this research was not made available by the IFoA to its membership or to other organisations, however the analysis was made publically available.
In a story published by the Daily Telegraph today research by the IFoA was represented as NHS data sold to insurers.
This is not the case. The research referenced in this story considered critical illness in the UK and was presented to members of the Staple Inn Actuarial Society (SIAS) in December 2013 and was made publically available on our website,” the IFoA said.
The IFoA is a not-for-profit professional body. The research paper Extending the Critical Path offered actuaries, working in critical illness pricing, information that would help them to ask the right questions of their own data.
The aim of providing context in this way is to help improve the accuracy of pricing. Accurate pricing is considered fairer by consumers and leads to better reserving by insurance companies. Nowhere in this paper does the IFoA recommend a change in insurance pricing.
The research referenced in the Telegraph story was published in December 2013 and in the same month was presented to SIAS members.
SIAS is a non-commercial body with over 5,000 members around the world, representing and serving the interests of younger members of the actuarial profession, whilst also acting as the London region actuarial society.
The IFoA says the research makes no pricing recommendations. It provides information for actuaries, enabling them to look at the broader experience of critical illness in the UK against their own data.
It is a reference point rather than a tool used to set pricing. It is also available to any organisation or body interested in critical illness in the UK.
The IFoA research was particularly interested in better understanding new types of critical illness identified and included in insurance policies in the UK.
With this research the IFoA offered actuaries working in critical illness pricing information that would help them to ask the right questions of their own data.
In a statement the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) stressed that extracted HES data can only be used; by health organisations to improve their ability to carry out their role; or to improve the quality of healthcare management or service delivery in England.
“It has been widely-reported today that the predecessor body to the HSCIC supplied data to an actuarial society.
The data provided was to a not-for-profit organisation for non-commercial research. It was not used to analyse individual insurance premiums, but to analyse general variances in critical illness.
This was about prevalence of certain conditions among certain age groups to ensure premiums were fair – it was not used to calculate individual premiums.
The resulting report was publically available, non-identifiable and in aggregate form.
“Prior to 1st April 2013, it was not the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) that processed HES information, but a predecessor body.
The HSCIC was established with different functions and subject to different legal provisions.
Additional criteria are currently applied so that the use of data requested needs to be for benefit to health and social care system.”
Source onmedica.com
