What Is the Medical Information Bureau (MIB)?

MIB, formerly known as the Medical Information Bureau, is a member-owner corporation that has operated on a not-for-profit basis in the United States and Canada since 1902. MIB assists life insurance companies in assessing potential applicants during the underwriting process.

• What Is the MIB?
• How Does the MIB Work?
• What Information Does the MIB Collect?
• How to Ask for a Copy of Your MIB Report
• Frequently Asked Questions

The MIB assists life insurance companies with the underwriting process and makes sure that insurers have accurate information about your medical history when underwriting an insurance policy. The MIB helps insurance companies to assess applicants more accurately and screen them for past or current medical conditions.

The MIB functions in a way that’s similar to a credit bureau. While a credit bureau tracks your credit history using lender-provided information like your credit cards and loans, the MIB tracks your medical history in order to help insurance companies decide how insurable you are. Types of insurance that require MIB include:

• Life insurance
• Health insurance
• Disability income
• Critical illness
• Long-term care

Your MIB report includes information about your medical history, including diagnoses and treatment of illness, as well as other personal factors like your driving record, employment and whether or not you participate in any dangerous activities, like skydiving. Information listed in the report includes:

• Date of any previous life insurance applications
• Date of diagnosis or treatment for an illness
• Medical conditions including mental health
• Types of treatment for medical conditions
• Where the medical history came from
• Driving record, including accidents and tickets
• Criminal activity, including arrests
• Occupation status
• Travel to foreign countries
• Participation in dangerous activities, like skydiving

Insurance companies use the information provided in the MIB report to assess your application. While the MIB report is not the only factor that insurance companies take into consideration, it helps insurers to verify that the information you provided in your application is accurate.

The MIB takes steps to ensure that user data is safe and that an individual’s data is private. It uses the same codes as the rest of the medical industry, and only includes information that is pertinent to an insurance application. The MIB doesn’t collect or store medical records; instead, it only collects information about your medical history. Only you and insurance companies have access to your report.

You can request a free copy of your MIB report once per year. You can access your report online or over the phone.

This report will include the same information that an insurer will see when assessing a policy application. Information in the report includes:

• Any medical and personal information that the MIB has in its database, along with who reported the information and when it was reported.
• The name of any MIB member company that received or requested your MIB report.
• Information about disability benefits for which you’ve applied if you previously applied for disability income insurance.

It’s a good idea to review your MIB report to make sure that it’s accurate and error-free. This helps to ensure that your application is fairly assessed.

If you find any errors in your MIB report, you can take steps to dispute or change this information. In order to do so, you’ll need to submit a signed Request for Reinvestigation Form and provide information including your name, date of birth, where you live, your Social Security number and any items that you believe to be incomplete or inaccurate.

We’ve answered some frequently asked questions about the Medical Information Bureau to help you understand how it works.