Your health record used to be considered a private matter between you and your doctor. With the growth of computerization and HMO's, doctors now share their records with each other and the HMOs. If you have ever applied for life, health or disability insurance, chances are good that the insurance companies will use the Medical Information Bureau to find out if you have any serious conditions that may affect how long you'll live. Information from your medical records may influence your credit, admission to educational institutions, employment, your ability to get health insurance, and the rate you pay for coverage.
The Medical Information Bureau, also known as MIB (http://www.mib.com), is the largest databank of medical information in the United States and Canada. MIB conducts a confidential interchange of underwriting information among its member life insurance companies as an alert against fraud. MIB holds approximately 15 million files in a central database, also collecting and furnishing information on consumers to its (approximately 750) member insurance companies for use in the underwriting process. MIB's member companies account for 99 percent of the individual life insurance policies and 80 percent of all health and disability policies issued in the United States and Canada. When an insurance claim is filed, a copy of this information goes to MIB. Data collected by MIB may include medical conditions, family relationships, sexual behavior, substance abuse, driving records, criminal activity, participation in hazardous sports, and sometimes even private thoughts from psychotherapy.
The MIB does not have a file on everyone, but if your medical information is on file, you will want to be sure it is correct. You can obtain a copy of your file by contacting MIB and submitting Form D–2 (U.S. residents only). The cost is $8. If you detect any errors, you can contact the bureau and demand that the record be corrected immediately.
New rules approved by the Federal Trade Commission, and agreed to by the reporting agencies, stipulate that MIB will abide by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The insurance company will now inform individuals when a MIB report played any part in the insurer's decision to deny coverage or to charge a higher rate whenever:
The member received information from MIB pertaining to the applicant.
The information received from MIB was used to further investigate the applicant's insurability.
The application for insurance was rated or declined in part or whole because of the information
obtained from that investigation.
Right now, without your knowledge, your health records are sometimes perused by employers, insurance companies, drug manufacturing companies, medical professionals, and the government. In addition making sure that your file is accurate, you can also take action to safeguard some of your personal medical privacy:
If you are rejected for insurance, ask why.
When you sign a waiver for the release of your medical records, try to limit the amount of information
released.
If your are participating in an informal health screening, find out what uses will be made of the
information collected.
If you are concerned about the lack of strong legislation regarding the privacy of medical records,
contact your state and federal legislators
