State Farm Defeats Bid to Revive Illinois Genetic Privacy Suit

State Farm’s life insurance business isn’t covered by Section 20(b) of Illinois’ Genetic Information Privacy Act, according to a state appellate court ruling that said the statute’s insurer regulation covers only health insurance underwriting.

Milton Reynolds filed a proposed class action alleging that requiring genetic personal health information to determine life insurance eligibility violated Section 20(b). The case was dismissed after the trial court agreed with State Farm that the statute doesn’t apply to life insurance.

The case could have been resolved solely on the fact that “State Farm is not a health care provider, plan, employer, or clearinghouse” and ...