What Can I Do if My International Health Insurance Provider Won’t Share My Claims Data?
It’s one of the most common frustrations we hear from companies that purchase international health insurance for their employees:
“Our insurer says they can’t share claims data because of privacy or conidentiality rules.”
It’s a convenient excuse – but rarely a valid one.
When They Can Share Claims Data
Yes – insurers and TPAs can and routinely do share aggregated claims data reports with the policyholder (the employer), as long as:
- All personal data is anonymized or aggregated (no names, birth dates, or identifiable details)
- The employer is the legal policyholder under a group plan
- The data is used for legitimate business purposes, such as plan management or renewal negotiations
Standard reports typically include:
- Total claims paid vs. premiums (loss ratio)
- Claims by benefit type (outpatient, inpatient, maternity, etc.)
- Top diagnostic categories
- Claim frequency and cost trends
- Large claims summaries with identifiers removed
This is standard practice among leading global insurers, and most reputable MGUs and TPAs.
When They Cannot Share Claims Data
They cannot share identifiable data that would allow the employer to trace a claim to an individual, unless:
- The employee has provided explicit written consent, or
- The data is being shared with a licensed medical advisor for a legitimate administrative purpose (such as medical review)
The Practical Reality
Some smaller TPAs or MGUs – and even some insurers – use “data privacy” as a pretext to avoid sharing claims data. Often it’s not a compliance issue but a control issue: they know that once you have data, you can question their renewal logic and challenge their pricing.
What You Can Do About It
If your insurer refuses to share claims data, you have three practical options:
- Appoint a broker to insist on it. A qualified broker will make data reporting a condition of your insurer relationship and ensure you receive anonymized, regular reporting.
- Make it part of your renewal negotiation. No data, no renewal. Insist that data transparency is non-negotiable – it’s the only way to manage costs responsibly.
- Change insurers if necessary. There are plenty of global insurers and TPAs that view data sharing as standard practice. Switching can feel disruptive, but staying blind is worse.
Why It Matters
Without claims data, you can’t understand your true cost drivers or measure the success of benefit design changes. You’re negotiating in the dark. With data, you can build a sustainable strategy – balancing financial sustainability with employee wellbeing.
At One World Cover, we’ve been helping international employers secure and interpret claims data for more than a decade. Because you can’t fix what you can’t see – and no organization should have to negotiate blind.
READ MORE >> Get Your Health Insurance Claim Data Or Fire Your Insurer – NOW!
READ MORE >> How Health Insurers Skew Your Claims Data
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