SINGAPORE, Jan. 26 -- Doctors in Singapore reportedly must obtain explicit patient consent before sharing any medical information with insurers, and may disclose only details that are directly necessary and relevant for insurance claims or underwriting assessments.

According to Singapore's The Straits Times, the island nation's Ministry of Health (MOH) reiterated that insurers are not permitted to access the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) for insurance purposes under the new Health Information Act, and that doing so is a criminal offence.

The clarification follows Parliament's passage of the Health Information Act on January 12, which will require all healthcare providers to contribute patients' key health information to the N...