Saturday, November 24, 2007
Chapter 6
I found parts of this chapter very similar to the earlier chapter that dealt with credit reporting businesses. The reporting of medical records to insurance companies is very similar to the reporting of credit information to banks. One mistake can be difficult for an individual to be aware of, and be difficult to fix. One mistake can be the difference between being approved for medical/life insurance and being denied coverage. Should information as private as your medical history be provided to private insurance companies enabling them to increase premiums or deny coverage? How safe are these records kept? Do you know what your records are or if they’re accurate? This current system encourages insurance companies to only insure the healthy, the ones who don’t need medical care… What’s the point of that? Perhaps if the costs of medical care were less then insurance companies wouldn’t be forced to make these decisions in order to stay in business. I think that computers and technology can create a more efficient system of medical records enabling doctors to collaborate and eliminate the duplication of tests. This way doctors can view a centralized list of procedures, x-rays, blood work, etc. for a patient and use this information to determine when check-ups and other tests are needed. Often when you go to a new doctor it’s like starting from scratch and a whole new set of costly tests are needed, this shouldn’t be. Some are worried about the privacy implications of such a system, but what about the insurance companies, they already have more access to your medical information than most doctors do, and this needs to be reversed. There will be no more of a privacy risk with this system than we are currently taking with our insurance companies. I don’t know about everyone else, but I would be less concerned about my privacy if my records were in the hands of doctors than in the hands of insurance company clerks.
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2 comments:
It is especially difficult to be aware of a mistake on ones medical record because, as far as I know, a patient doesn’t have the right to see his or her medical history as they do a credit report. As I said in my blog, I do understand both sides. As an insurance company I want to reduce as much financial risk as possible and that means knowing the medical history of applicants. On the other hand, I understand consumers not wanting to pay higher coverage costs because of certain medical reasons. It does seem like a good idea to have a system in place to prevent things such as tests to be re-given. It is true that this could create privacy issues as well but as you have said, insurance companies already have access to this information and can indirectly pass it onto employers when they decide not to provide group coverage anymore. But what about careless or unethical doctors or nurses passing it onto an unintended third party? I am certainly not famous, nor would I want to be, but George Clooney’s medical records were released for no reason because a staff member at the hospital he visited wanted to release it. For money? Who knows, I didn’t follow up with it.
Alan, you make some really good points. I agree that having my medical information readily available to my physician sounds like a good idea. I believe this would really help with care for the elderly who often forget what they’ve been told, or don’t remember the medications all of the medical professionals they see have prescribed. It would be a great tool to have their information checked and cross-checked via computer to be certain their many different physicians are not prescribing conflicting medications.
I also agree that insurance companies have access to entirely too much personal information and history on the people throughout their entire lifetime. Many times, things that happened at one point in our life have no bearing on our current health or medical issues. Unfortunately, past history and mistakes on our records are all taken into consideration when insurance companies are determining who to insure or not, and what premiums to charge.
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