State RegulationsVA specificDifficulty 2/5
A Virginia life insurer obtained an applicant's HIV test results with proper consent. A coworker of the applicant calls the insurer and asks whether the results came back positive. Under Va. Code § 38.2-613.01, how must the insurer treat the results?
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Answer & full 3-part explanation (select an option above, or peek)
Why B is correct
Va. Code § 38.2-613.01 treats HIV test results obtained in insurance underwriting as confidential, and 14 VAC 5-180-50 reinforces the handling requirements. Disclosure is confined to the circumstances the statute permits — foremost the individual himself, who is entitled to know his own results — and does not extend to coworkers, employers, or uninvolved physicians. A caller asking about a third party's results gets nothing, and the insurer's compliance with this confidentiality scheme is overseen by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance.
Why the other options are wrong
- A) Knowledge that a test occurred confers no right to its results; the statute's permitted disclosures are specific, and curious third parties are not among them.
- C) Premium participation does not convert an employer into a permissible recipient of an employee's confidential HIV test results.
- D) A physician's license alone does not unlock another person's underwriting results; disclosure runs through the statute's permitted channels.
Memory hook
HIV results travel only on statutory rails — to the applicant, not to the office gossip.