4 ms·

This is not true. I don’t like having my health care tied to my job - they are orthogonal concerns. But in the US, your employer does not have access to your he

by tedsuo 7y ago

This is not true. I don’t like having my health care tied to my job - they are orthogonal concerns. But in the US, your employer does not have access to your healthcare records.

AlexandrB 7y ago
If it's a "self-insured" plan[1], your employer potentially has access to all insurance claims because they are the insurer. That's not the same as access to complete healthcare records but it's pretty telling information. [1] https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/self-insured-plan/ https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/self-insured-plan/
- chimeracoder 7y ago
  > If it's a "self-insured" plan[1], your employer potentially has access to all insurance claims because they are the insurer. That's not the same as access to complete healthcare records but it's pretty telling information. No, companies almost never manage the claims themselves. They underwrite the plans, but managing claims is cost-prohibitive, as it's outside the core competency of most large companies.
  - marcinzm 7y ago
    Sure but they can get access to the claims data from whomever is managing it as they're paying for them.
    - astura 7y ago
      Hence Tim Armstrong's comments about AOL spending a couple million dollars on "distressed babies" being the reason 401(k) benefits were cut. https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/whose-distressed-baby-is-it https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/whose-distressed...
reureu 7y ago
They definitely do if they’re self insured. That doesn’t mean your boss can just pull it up willy-nilly, but I promise someone in HR can. I’ve sat in on conversations at my company where we’ve been pitched on claims analysis tools for our own HR department to use.
- chimeracoder 7y ago
  > They definitely do if they’re self insured. Self-insured doesn't mean they manage claims themselves. For most companies, managing claims would be cost-prohibitive and an absurdly wasteful use of resources.
  - undefined3840 7y ago
    Most companies use a Third Party Administrator (TPA) for the actual back office claims management. That doesn’t mean people in HR and Finance don’t have visibility into claims data.
    - chimeracoder 7y ago
      > Most companies use a Third Party Administrator (TPA) for the actual back office claims management. Yes > That doesn’t mean people in HR and Finance don’t have visibility into claims data. I mean, this is technically a true statement - "A does not necessarily imply not-B" - but kind of irrelevant, because as it turns out, HR and finance generally do not have visibility into individual-level claims data (as opposed to aggregate data, which is necessary for underwriting).
      - undefined3840 7y ago
        I mean key word “generally”? I’m not suggesting that there’s a team of employees watching you every time you pick up a prescription, but of course they could access an individual claim if there was a legitimate reason to. Not sure why it’s so unbelievable to think that an insurer would be legally barred from doing so if they are literally taking on the risk themselves, even if it is to audit the TPA to make sure they aren’t stealing from them. If you are an extremely ill employee and you’re using a lot of healthcare your employer will know without you needing to inform them.
hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
Remember when Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, blamed an employee's new baby's health issues on benefit cuts [1]? He may not have had "full access", but he basically blamed an employee's family health issues, publicly, as the reason for employee benefit cuts. [1] https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/02/tim-armstrong-blames-distressed-babies-for-aol-benefit-cuts-hes-talking-about-my-daughter.html https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/02/tim-armstrong-blame...
- kjeetgill 7y ago
  Your sentence confuses me. Did he blame the cuts on the baby? Or the baby's issues on the cuts?
  - ryandrake 7y ago
    It’s in the linked article. The CEO (after a great financial quarter) announced benefits cuts, blaming costs and using as examples two “distressed babies” that cost the company $1M each. Armstrong was making $12M, by the way, so in other words, 12 Distressed Babies per year in compensation.
virtuallynathan 7y ago
They definitely have access to at least aggregate data, see this kinda thing: https://collectivehealth.com/solutions/actionable-insights/ https://collectivehealth.com/solutions/actionable-insights/
jm4 7y ago
They do if the plan is self funded. If it’s not, they still get anonymized usage reports from the carrier that list all the claims with basic demographic info like gender, age range and whether it was the employee, child or spouse who the claim was for. You probably wouldn’t know if your company’s plan is self funded or not.

by tedsuo 7y ago

This is not true. I don’t like having my health care tied to my job - they are orthogonal concerns. But in the US, your employer does not have access to your healthcare records.

AlexandrB 7y ago

If it's a "self-insured" plan[1], your employer potentially has access to all insurance claims because they are the insurer. That's not the same as access to complete healthcare records but it's pretty telling information. [1] https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/self-insured-plan/ https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/self-insured-plan/

chimeracoder 7y ago
> If it's a "self-insured" plan[1], your employer potentially has access to all insurance claims because they are the insurer. That's not the same as access to complete healthcare records but it's pretty telling information. No, companies almost never manage the claims themselves. They underwrite the plans, but managing claims is cost-prohibitive, as it's outside the core competency of most large companies.
- marcinzm 7y ago
  Sure but they can get access to the claims data from whomever is managing it as they're paying for them.
  - astura 7y ago
    Hence Tim Armstrong's comments about AOL spending a couple million dollars on "distressed babies" being the reason 401(k) benefits were cut. https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/whose-distressed-baby-is-it https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/whose-distressed...

reureu 7y ago

They definitely do if they’re self insured. That doesn’t mean your boss can just pull it up willy-nilly, but I promise someone in HR can. I’ve sat in on conversations at my company where we’ve been pitched on claims analysis tools for our own HR department to use.

chimeracoder 7y ago
> They definitely do if they’re self insured. Self-insured doesn't mean they manage claims themselves. For most companies, managing claims would be cost-prohibitive and an absurdly wasteful use of resources.
- undefined3840 7y ago
  Most companies use a Third Party Administrator (TPA) for the actual back office claims management. That doesn’t mean people in HR and Finance don’t have visibility into claims data.
  - chimeracoder 7y ago
    > Most companies use a Third Party Administrator (TPA) for the actual back office claims management. Yes > That doesn’t mean people in HR and Finance don’t have visibility into claims data. I mean, this is technically a true statement - "A does not necessarily imply not-B" - but kind of irrelevant, because as it turns out, HR and finance generally do not have visibility into individual-level claims data (as opposed to aggregate data, which is necessary for underwriting).
    - undefined3840 7y ago
      I mean key word “generally”? I’m not suggesting that there’s a team of employees watching you every time you pick up a prescription, but of course they could access an individual claim if there was a legitimate reason to. Not sure why it’s so unbelievable to think that an insurer would be legally barred from doing so if they are literally taking on the risk themselves, even if it is to audit the TPA to make sure they aren’t stealing from them. If you are an extremely ill employee and you’re using a lot of healthcare your employer will know without you needing to inform them.

hn_throwaway_99 7y ago

Remember when Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, blamed an employee's new baby's health issues on benefit cuts [1]? He may not have had "full access", but he basically blamed an employee's family health issues, publicly, as the reason for employee benefit cuts. [1] https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/02/tim-armstrong-blames-distressed-babies-for-aol-benefit-cuts-hes-talking-about-my-daughter.html https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/02/tim-armstrong-blame...

kjeetgill 7y ago
Your sentence confuses me. Did he blame the cuts on the baby? Or the baby's issues on the cuts?
- ryandrake 7y ago
  It’s in the linked article. The CEO (after a great financial quarter) announced benefits cuts, blaming costs and using as examples two “distressed babies” that cost the company $1M each. Armstrong was making $12M, by the way, so in other words, 12 Distressed Babies per year in compensation.

virtuallynathan 7y ago

They definitely have access to at least aggregate data, see this kinda thing: https://collectivehealth.com/solutions/actionable-insights/ https://collectivehealth.com/solutions/actionable-insights/

jm4 7y ago

They do if the plan is self funded. If it’s not, they still get anonymized usage reports from the carrier that list all the claims with basic demographic info like gender, age range and whether it was the employee, child or spouse who the claim was for. You probably wouldn’t know if your company’s plan is self funded or not.