Posted by Brenda on February 24, 2000, at 21:30:56
In reply to Re: Calm again, posted by Noa on February 24, 2000, at 20:23:19
> When you say a health care plan administered through your employer, do you mean a self-insuring company? I thought my BCBS plan, paid through the employer, shares no health info about us, only an aggregate total of the costs, for purposes of rating the group on risk. Am I wrong?
I don't know what a BCBS is. The company I worked for offered different HMO-type plans, Kaiser, Aetna, etc. They were self-insured re disability and Workers' Comp. So if you went out on mental disability whether or not related to a Workers' Comp claim, that would show up. Their plans were also administed by a third party. However, when they got the cost breakdowns for the various claims and hospitalizations, that information WAS listed. Our company also had a psych plan (which I wouldn't use) that was administered by a third party. Still - the company can get that information. Only the Mgmnt of the Benefits department was supposed to see that stuff, but as an H/R rep, I got access to it. My point really is the lack of confidentiality. There is definitely an implied confidentiality and outside of your H/R dept. no one should know your medical business. Still, the H/R group I was with was worse than those lawyers we were talking about. The company has about 3,000 employees locally, and still operated like a small family. One of our upper mgr.'s did go out on a stress leave. One evening he rounded up about 60-100 employees, union folks mostly (this is a manufacturing co.)and herded them all into the auditorium for no reason at all, and then started babbling about God knows what. They had to get Security to take him away. Ruined his career - and even though he returned after getting help and meds, they shipped the poor guy off to Tijuana to manage a facility down there. I can tell you - HR is full of stories. Whatever your medical situation is - it most likely is VERY confidential where you work. That's the law. Whatever your company told you is probably reliable. Geez - I hope you're still calm.
poster:Brenda
thread:23436
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000220/msgs/23656.html