Re: Viewpoint

["Ilene K. Johnson" <ikj@mindspring.com>]

Who the "heck" was this national insurance company who transferred your info
to a national data base?
-----Original Message-----
From: Whistle <weeethistle@yahoo.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list MED-PRIVACY <med-privacy@essential.org>
Date: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 2:42 PM
Subject: Viewpoint


>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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