5 ms·
Even if this data (date of birth, postcode, etc) would be removed, it would still be rather trivial for e.g. an insurance company to match these records to thei
by exDM69 13y ago
Even if this data (date of birth, postcode, etc) would be removed, it would still be rather trivial for e.g. an insurance company to match these records to their customers. Given one or two insurance claims for doctor's appointments, matching the medical records for identical dates is enough to pinpoint a person with adequate certainty.
Then the insurance company can grep the records for mentions of smoking, drinking, drug use or injuries related to dangerous activities like riding horses, motor racing or skiing. Now that the insurance companies can identify patients in these risk groups, they can proceed to doubling the insurance fees of these people.
I think that the insurance companies should not be able to access medical records like this.
edit: please excuse my ignorance on the UK health care system. In my country, you pay a fixed fee when using public health care and you can claim insurance on that.
- arethuza 13y ago"Given one or two insurance claims for doctor's appointments" You don't make any kind of insurance claim for visiting a GP (or indeed any other NHS service that I know of). You do make an insurance claim if you have private health insurance in addition to NHS cover but that's optional and entirely separate and that's for visiting a private hospital (although the same senior doctors often work at both NHS and private hospitals).
- tomp 13y agoIt's futile to prevent insurance companies from accessing the records - once information is out there, it's out there for ever. It would be better, IMO, to limit the amount of discrimination that private insurance companies can do - or, even better, eliminate all private insurance companies and provide complete health insurance to every citizen (in which case, data-mining research on health data can truly be useful).
- lclarkmichalek 13y agoDo people regularly claim on insurance for NHS doctor's appointments? I know I never have. Regarding the smoking etc, I'm pretty sure that health insurance companies ask if you smoke (and yes, double the cost if you say yes), and giving a lying counts as insurance fraud. Due to that, I'm not too sure how relevant the NHS records would be, other than in cases where someone has lied, in which case I'm not too inclined to feel sorry for them.
- xerophtye 13y agoExactly. If you are trying to hide such information from insurance companies that would help them better understand your risks, that is unfair to insurance companies. That is Insurance fraud.
- russss 13y agoI don't think there are any UK health insurance companies which allow you to claim for NHS doctor's appointments. Presumably if you have a health insurance plan which covers private doctor's appointments, they get a copy of the doctor's notes anyway.
- michaelt 13y agoSeveral insurance companies will pay a cash incentive to use NHS services rather than claiming on your insurance [1]. For example if you need to stay over night in hospital and choose an NHS hospital instead of a private one they will give you £50 or more per night. [1] https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="NHS+cash+benefits" https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="NHS+cash+benefits"
- arethuza 13y agoNice - my employers private health care insurance includes this and I had never noticed! Mind you I wonder when it would ever apply - if you have a non-emergency then you will choose to go to a private hospital, if it is an emergency then you don't have any option but to go to an NHS hospital... Maybe for people who are covered by private health care but aren't close enough to a private hospital to actually use it?
- mistakoala 13y agoIt's presumably the incentive of not using non-NHS facilities (which the insurance company would have to pay for as part of your cover). £50 to stay in an NHS ward vs a bit more to stay in an en-suite room in a private hospital. If I had insurance, I know for sure which I would be choosing.
- pbhjpbhj 13y agoOr perhaps just a rare disease/disorder and some other data-point would be enough to de-anonymise some data. It'd be like a massive sudoku ...