From: schenn@mars.lerc.nasa.gov (Lisa Henn)
Newsgroups: alt.privacy,misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: Medical data banks?
Date: 27 Jan 93 15:28:00 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <malcolm.727990480@>, malcolm@wrs.com (Malcolm Humes) writes...
>bwood@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Wood) writes:
>>Medical Information Bureau??

>>    I saw a quick report on them on my local news.  From what I was
>>able to catch, anyone can write to them to get copies of whatever
>>is written on you (medically).  

>>    This seems to be the main storage center of medical information that 
>>is used by and contributed to from nearly all major insurance companies.  

Although I am not familiar with this service, it probably just contains
that portion of your medical history that was covered by insurance.

>This is really ugly stuff - to me it implies that they could be running
>check on medical history as a pre-employment screening, perhaps to weed
>out folks with any history of psychological treatment, drug rehabs, or
>any history of serious illness. 

Possibly.  That's why, if you ever need such services, you should pay out of
your own funds and not file for insurance coverage if at all possible.

>Somehow I doubt that this is regulated and 
>scrutized to the extent that Credit reporting is. 

Probably not until someone like 60 Minutes does a story portraying them
unfavorably.

>Most likely it's totally
>run as a service to the insurance business with their interests met. 

It's probably run as a service for whomever pays their bills, which, admitedly,
is likely to be insurance companies.

> - aren't doctors bound by some rights of the 
>privacy of a patient? 

The doctors are, but when you submit the bill to your "friendly", neighborhood
insurance company, you always sign a statement saying something to the effect
of "I hereby permit Dr. Smith's office to release any information pertinent
to the evaluation by Insurance Company of the legitimacy of my claim."

So, the doctors are forbidden to disclose, but you can't get insurance payment
unless you waive that right away (not unlike your right to review your
educational files as assured by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act that you sign away when you ask a professor to give you a recommendation.)

>I'd be surprised if the info is freely available to
>folks like potential employers,

I dunno--if they are taking seriously the premiums they pay to the company
they may decide internally to try to "reduce their risk" as it were.  I suspect
it would be illegal, as they would have to effectively discriminate against
people who have had this or that medical history, but some companies may 
decide to do that.

Would you want to work for such a company?  Denial by them for a job may be
a blessing in disguise.

> but I'd love to get some conformation one way or the other. 
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^

hee hee--so would the insurance companies!
(dont' feel bad; it just tickled me, that's all :)

L
Lisa Henn
Analex Corporation
schenn@e4310h01.lerc.nasa.gov
-----------------------------
Disclaimer:  This post does not reflect in any way the opinions of my employer
             or NASA, nor the any administrative policy of these organizations.