Insurance Match Program

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, more commonly known as Welfare Reform, was signed into law on August 22, 1996. One of the provisions enabled States to pass corresponding laws providing State Child Support Enforcement (CSE) agencies with the authority to issue administrative subpoenas to collect financial or other information needed to establish, enforce or modify a child support order (42 U.S.C. sections 652(a)(11), 654(a)(9)(E), 666(c)).

State CSE agencies can obtain access, subject to privacy safeguards, to government and private records, including information about assets held by financial institutions (including insurance companies), and records held by private entities with respect to individuals who owe child support (42 U.S.C. 666(c)1D).

Section 7306 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 amended Section 452 of the Social Security Act to authorize the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to compare information concerning individuals owing past-due child support with information maintained by insurers (or their agents) concerning insurance claims, settlements, awards, and payments.

How does the insurance match program work?

State CSE agencies may elect to participate in the program by completing the OCSE State Election form. Since the match is not a mandate, insurers (or their agents) may participate in the OCSE Insurance Match Program using one of these methods:

• Send insurance claims data to OCSE for comparison with individuals delinquent in their child support obligations (claims that do not match will be discarded immediately); or
• Receive an electronic file from OCSE of individuals delinquent in their child support obligations for comparison with insurance claims, payments, settlements and awards, and return the matches to OCSE; or
• Authorize an agent (e.g., Insurance Service Office [ISO] or third party processor) to work with OCSE to conduct the data match on behalf of the insurer.

Once the comparison is conducted, OCSE will provide the information to the State CSE agencies responsible for collecting child support from the delinquent obligors. Based on the information received from OCSE, the State CSE agency may issue liens or levies (consistent with the State's laws) to attach and seize the insurance claims, settlements, awards, and payments.

What types of claims, settlements, awards, and payments are subject to the insurance match program?

Property/Casualty claims, settlements, awards, and payments are subject to the match program. The Insurance Match Program is not applicable to health care coverage/medical insurance data.