Prescription Data Used To Assess Consumers
Records Aid Insurers but Prompt Privacy Concerns
Health and life insurance companies have access to a powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health "credit report" drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans.
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A health privacy proposal pending in Congress would expand federal officials' ability to regulate such "downstream" organizations, audit their activities and impose civil fines. The bill also includes a prohibition on the sale of electronic medical records.
The rest is at the Washington Post URL. Think of this as a great way to help insurance companies cherry-pick the healthiest patients, and if your memory of what you've been prescribed and for what isn't as good as the insurance company's database records, they get to keep your premiums and zap your policy.