Posted by noa on January 28, 2003, at 22:43:22
In reply to Re: Medical records privacy » mikhail99, posted by Dinah on January 28, 2003, at 21:28:33
I would get both the HMO's and the doctor's privacy policies. While a release may need to be signed, you want to know what safeguards they have in force to make sure that the rules are followed. Also, sometimes, you sign a release for something, say insurance applications, and don't realize the scope of the release. It is always ok to ask them to explain fully what the release is releasing, before you sign.
If you apply for a job and sign a release, or apply for insurance and sign a release, they can get info from the insurance institute, which collects info from other insurance companies as well as from doctors and you can be denied insurance because of the info that comes through the insurance institute, and never know why you were declined. There was a famous case a while back where a man died of AIDS that he did not know he had, but the insurance institute had info on him, based on something like a pre-employment blood test, that he had AIDS. Not only did he and his wife not find out why they were denied insurance, but they never received what could have been life saving information.
In contrast, there are laws in place to protect consumers if denied credit or insurance, etc. on the basis of something in their credit report (if denied, you are entitled to a free copy of the report that the denial was based on and a statement of the type of problem that deemed you a bad credit risk).
poster:noa
thread:35878
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030120/msgs/35898.html