Viewpoint

[Whistle <weeethistle@yahoo.com>]

Response:

Our comments represent concerns of our employees
insured by a group medical policy. Our concerns:
required sharing of med info with third-parties,level
of responsibility of third-party resulting in removal
of the physician from medical care for the patient.
Pariety directs equal care. The Care Manager, not
defined to our knowledge, replaced the PCP in our
policy. The  decision-making required for good medical
care does impact directly on the concept of medical
privacy.  We believe we have the right to control our
medical information and we enjoy the patient-physician
relationship and believe that the licensing of the
physician should protect our privacy.

Removal of a physician from patient care, especially
if the care is targeted to mental health, is serious
change in medical care by the insurance company. 

The consumer will be mandated to provide intimate
details which may not be appropriate for release  to
strangers at an insurance company, may not be
appropriate tools for evaluating a consumer over the
telephone, and may result in mismanagement of an
illness.  Information provided in confidence can
impact on a patient's right to work, pursue
educational goals, secure a mortgage, secure other
insurance, hurt family members, etc., when misused. 
There is no accountability that the information
provided directly to an insurance company will be
secured and treated with confidentiality. 

Our local insurance representative has already
informed us that our past medical insurance provider
transfered our medical information into a national
database and that if we wish to see if it is correct,
we must ask for a copy.  It is good that we can get a
copy but upsetting that the provider has placed
information into a database without notifying the
insured or requesting authorization to do so.   

Our original question about the Care Manager was
addressed to the list because we felt it was relevant.
 The debates ongoing in this country about HMO's and
the rights of physicians and patients is not a new
one.    Extending the concept of managed care to other
plans and removing the physician from the loop of
decision-making does impact on privacy.

We apologize if the comments were not on target enough
 for some list members. We can only speak for
ourselves and have tried to do so with thoughtfulness.
We hope that others will act with courtesy on this
list when communicating differing opinions. 

Note: med-privacy@essential.org is published on the
www and archives are searchable by name.  Because of
our affiliations, we have found it important to use a
signature.  We like Whistle.

Regards,

Whistle

 
 






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Thistle
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