Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Talking about health issues online and medical privacy
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March 7, 2008 at 10:39 pm #586521
SueParticipantA friend of mine writes a blog that’s mostly about running, but she had an article today that I thought I’d share regarding how information you post about your health online can potentially be used against you legally, such as proving you had pre-existing conditions, etc. I know a number of us have talked about our “gimpy-ness” from time to time, so I thought I’d share this:
http://run-dmz.blogspot.com/2008/03/be-careful-out-there.html
March 8, 2008 at 2:26 am #616999
JanSParticipantgotta love those insurance companies ;-)
March 8, 2008 at 7:01 am #617000
TheHouseMemberSo Sue, assuming that pre-existing conditions are not covered by insurance are you advocating being unethical and simply hiding your pre-existing condition? By hiding a pre-exiting condition or lying about it, you are cheating the insurance company which directly impacts the cost of the insurance for everyone, particulary for the average person that is honest and ethical.
My point here is that cheating health insurance companies by not divulging the facts up front is no different than you taking a sledgehammer to your vehicle and then claiming that your vehicle was hit and that you were injured. Both are examples of cheating the system.
March 8, 2008 at 3:32 pm #617001
KayleighMemberHouse, it’s different than taking a sledgehammer to a vehicle. That’s actually insurance fraud and voids your policy.
People can’t necessarily control whether they have a pre-existing condition. We pay (or our employers pay) insurance companies to take care of illnesses. Period. Which is why I think we need a single-payer national government run health plan. But that’s a whole ‘nother thing.
;-)
March 8, 2008 at 3:38 pm #617002
TheHouseMemberNo, it is not different. Your insurance company asks you up front to disclose all of your conditions. They have a right to charge you more or not cover you if they chose. If you choose not to disclose, you are the one in the wrong not the insurance company.
Play by the rules of the game.
March 8, 2008 at 3:56 pm #617003
JoBParticipantThe House…
“play by the rules of the game”
You may be currently correct if your undisclosed preexisting condition is a diagnosed medical condition… not disclosing that is not “playing by the rules of the game” …of course you won’t get medical care either… but that’s another conversation.
however, your insurance company doesn’t play by the rules of the game… insurance companies are now bumping patients and denying care on suspicion of preexisting symptoms … even those the insured may not have been aware of.
This has even been the case with a woman i know who went to her doctor for symptoms on her previous insurance and was told that she was perfectly fine… she just needed to “get out more” and then was denied coverage by a subsequent insurer based on an “undisclosed” medical condition. One she clearly didn’t know she had to disclose.
And heaven forbid you actually get genetic testing for the “tendency” to inherit some illness.. like women who want to know if they have the breast cancer gene so they can be proactive about their health.
This is why the law needs to be changed so that insurance companies can’t deny you coverage based on either psychological conditions or preexisting conditions.
Those with preexisting conditions aren’t what’s driving health care costs. We pay more and get less than any other developed country in the world…. when you eat up 3o+% of every health care dollar in administrative costs… that sort of drives costs… and that figure doesn’t even mention the profits generated in every one of the administrative centers your health care dollar passes through…
we die earlier.. our outcome measures (life) for most treatable catastrophic and chronic illnesses are worse… and our babies die at an alarming rate.
Who is getting cheated here?
March 8, 2008 at 3:57 pm #617004
JoBParticipantThe House…
“play by the rules of the game”
You may be currently correct if your undisclosed preexisting condition is a diagnosed medical condition… not disclosing that is not “playing by the rules of the game” …of course you won’t get medical care either… but that’s another conversation.
however, your insurance company doesn’t play by the rules of the game… insurance companies are now bumping patients and denying care on suspicion of preexisting symptoms … even those the insured may not have been aware of.
This has even been the case with a woman i know who went to her doctor for symptoms on her previous insurance and was told that she was perfectly fine… she just needed to “get out more” and then was denied coverage by a subsequent insurer based on an “undisclosed” medical condition. One she clearly wasn’t aware she had.
And heaven forbid you actually get genetic testing for the “tendency” to inherit some illness.. like women who want to know if they have the breast cancer gene so they can be proactive about their health.
This is why the law needs to be changed so that insurance companies can’t deny you coverage based on either psychological conditions or preexisting conditions.
Those with preexisting conditions aren’t what’s driving health care costs. We pay more and get less than any other developed country in the world…. when you eat up 3o+% of every health care dollar in administrative costs… that sort of drives costs… and that figure doesn’t even mention the profits generated in every one of the administrative centers your health care dollar passes through…
we die earlier.. our outcome measures (life) for most treatable catastrophic and chronic illnesses are worse… and our babies die at an alarming rate.
Who is getting cheated here?
March 8, 2008 at 4:07 pm #617005
KayleighMemberThe trouble with letting insurance company MBA types effectively practice medicine is that a “pre-existing condition” can be a nebulous thing, not scientifically defined.
I had eczema when I was 9 years old. I haven’t had an iota of it in 25 years. If I get it tomorrow, is it a “pre-exisitng condition”? I would tell my dermatologist that I had it as a child, because this fact might help in diagnosis and treatment. If my insurance company were to deny treatment and I could not afford to pay for it (some derm medicines run hundreds of dollars a month), how is any greater good served?
I would now have a painful, uncomfortable, possibly disfiguring condition that might inhibit my ability to be promoted or even *get* work. The open untreated skin might make me at higher risk for a secondary infection (more $ to treat that,right?)
(for the record, I have no eczema at all; this is hypothetical.)
Many conditions and diseases wax and wane, and we should have the right to get treatment at whatever phase they happen to be in. That’s the risk the insurance company takes.
March 8, 2008 at 6:24 pm #617006
JoBParticipantmy apology for the double post..
i have trouble editing in the small composition box so i always read it in the blue (easy for me to see) box and edit.
generally, the first post is replaced.. but it didn’t happen that way this time.
a writer can never resist editing… but inflicting essentially the same post twice is unnecessary… and unintentional. sorry:(
March 8, 2008 at 7:41 pm #617007
Bikefor1MemberJoB, try changing the zoom level on your browser window to make the font larger in the composition box. You can change it from 100% to 150% or higher. In Opera it’s top right. In IE it’s bottom right.
March 8, 2008 at 7:58 pm #617008
JoBParticipantBikefor1.. i confess i already have it as big as i can get it:(
and… it’s not just the font size.. i “see” better with a blue background… or at least my brain recognizes detail better.
but thank you very much for letting me know as i am sure that info will help others.
March 9, 2008 at 3:03 am #617009
WSBKeymasterRe: unintentional double posting — I believe you have the ability to delete your own posts provided you’re signed in. Let me know if not. I’ve seen some posts in the delete bin that had to have been sent there by their author because I sure didn’t put them there.
March 9, 2008 at 3:16 am #617010
JoBParticipantlowmanbeach, if i can, i don’t know how.
March 9, 2008 at 2:30 pm #617011
SueParticipantNo, House, I certainly hadn’t been thinking of cheating insurance companies by holding back info. (Side note – I once went through a glass door in an apt. building lobby and all my friends could not believe I didn’t sue them; I didn’t because I was late for work, running, and tripped on the rug – not that the rug was “installed poorly” and made me get hurt. So I certainly don’t advocate claiming something you’re not entitled to.)
My thoughts in posting that was that you never know how something you write can be construed down the line. Take for instance, I have carpal tunnel syndrome. Spent quite a lot of time dealing with the Workers Compensation people in NY (that’s L&I here) to get my chiropractic covered for it, which was related to a neck problem. They claimed I had a preexisting condition of neck injury because I was seeing a chiropractor for years. The chiro had always been for low back pain – never once did I have a problem with my neck that I needed medical attention for, until the CTS. Now, I’m assuming most of us, at one time in our lives, has woken up with a stiff neck of unknown origin that resolves itself in a day or so. So if I’d been posting online “wow, I can’t believe how bad my neck is today” about a year earlier, just about that simple incident, I would not put it past an investigator to have the ability to turn that around into a preexisting condition and deny my claim a year later.
Of course, if someone here read my post and wants to keep insurance ignorant of something, that’s up to them. But definitely not my intent.
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