AnnualMedicalReport.com

The Federal laws FCRA and FACTA, which govern the credit bureaus Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, also regulate a whole universe of other corporations known as “nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies” and include such companies as: ChoicePoint, Acxiom, CBC Innovis, PayChex, the Insurance Services Office (ISO), Tenant Data Services, LexisNexis, Retail Equation, Central Credit, TeleTrack, the Medical Information Bureau Inc. (MIB), Ingenix Inc., and Milliman Inc.  In fact, just as financial companies rely on “credit reports” to establish credit for customers, insurance, real estate, banking, and retail companies also utilize credit report files to assess consumers and charge higher prices.

For example, health and life insurance corporations rely on some of these nationwide consumer specialty reporting agencies to provide powerful technologies for evaluating and pricing individual insurance applicants: personal “medical report” files.  The Washington Post says that these medical reports, which are “like credit reports for your health records,” have been created for more than 200 million Americans.

Here is a comprehensive list of websites, telephone numbers, and mailing addresses for the top 25 most frequently requested annual consumer reports available to you from the nationwide consumer reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  Through these reports, these consumer reporting agencies extensively monitor your personal medical, insurance, employment, rental, and banking history.  Federal law entitles all consumers to check and verify each report, once every year because they significantly impact your options and costs of credit.

As The Consumerist advises, “Be sure to check them out and correct any errors, before a crisis hits.” (more…)

President Barack Obama Signs Historic Health Insurance Reform Law Overhaul. Health Insurance Reform Overhaul for Health Care Signed after Congress passes Health Care Vote.

On March 23, 2010 in Washington, D.C. at The White House, President Barack Obama signed into law a nearly $1 trillion health care overhaul that ranks among the biggest changes ever devised by Washington and will reshape the way virtually every American receives and pays for treatment. It will rework fully one-sixth of the U.S. economy and for the first time cement insurance coverage as the right of every U.S. citizen.

However, until the regulations take effect in 2014, if you have a pre-existing medical condition, you’re going to have a hard time buying individual insurance, in all but a handful of states. You might get turned down completely, or be charged very high premiums and probably also have to wait as long as a year (paying those very high premiums the whole time) before the health plan covers your condition’s treatment.

Health and life insurance corporations have powerful technologies for evaluating and pricing individual insurance applicants: personal “medical report” files.  The Washington Post says that these medical reports, which are “like credit reports for your health records,” have been created for more than 200 million Americans.

Alarmingly, your medical report files may include both medical and non-medical information about you.  For instance, personal data collected by the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) may include medical conditions, credit report history, driving records, criminal activity, drug use, sexual orientation, participation in hazardous sports, and personal or family genetic history.  Using information from your medical report files, insurance companies can charge higher premiums or terminate coverage.

No consumer should pay for health or life insurance without first reviewing their annual medical report files.  Under Federal law, all consumers are entitled to an annual copy of their medical report files from the nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies, including the Medical Information Bureau Inc., Milliman Inc., and Ingenix Inc.

Read the full text of the Protection and Affordable Care Act – Bill Number H.R. 3590 below.

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Health information technology (“Health IT” or “Electronic Medical Records” or “Personal Health Records (PHR)”) has tremendous potential to improve health care quality and reduce costs while empowering patients to play a greater role in the management of their own care. At the same time, however, electronic storage and exchange of personal health information poses risks to privacy.  Unaddressed, privacy concerns can stand in the way of realizing the benefits of health IT, for neither patients nor providers will make full use of a system they do not trust.

As corporations such as Google (Google Health), Microsoft (Microsoft HealthVault), IBM (IBM Healthcare and IBM Health Integration Framework for Healthcare Providers), and UnitedHealth Group (MyOptumHealth.com) develop personal health systems (PHS) to exchange private medical records and health information, consumers must demand fully transparency in the use of their data and require access to check and verify their own personal records.

Federal laws give you the right to see, get a copy of and amend (correct) your medical record by adding information to it.  Additionally, most states have laws that give you rights to your medical records.  The following organizations help consumers and patients navigate the complex relationships between privacy, security, confidentiality, and the management of personal electronic health records.

The Prescription Project (The Pew Charitable Trusts)
Created with the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Prescription Project seeks to eliminate conflicts of interest created by pharmaceutical marketing by promoting policy change within academic medical centers, professional medical societies and public and private payers. In addition, the Prescription Project will advance state and national level policy solutions. New prescription drugs and medical devices are revolutionizing the practice of health care, enhancing disease management and improving quality of life. However, aggressive pharmaceutical marketing to physicians is creating real and perceived conflicts of interest in the medical profession and raising questions about the appropriateness of treatment choices. These practices can compromise patient care and increase health care costs. It is essential that physicians base their prescribing decisions on accurate and unbiased information, not on misleading marketing materials.
www.PrescriptionProject.org

Georgetown University’s Center on Medical Records Rights and Privacy
Georgetown University’s Center on Medical Records Rights and Privacy provides state-specific guides to help consumers access their medical records and electronic medical records. The Center on Medical Record Rights and Privacy is based at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute, a non-partisan multi-disciplinary group of faculty and staff dedicated to conducting research on key issues in health policy and health services research. The Center is dedicated to raising public awareness of the rights and responsibilities associated with medical records and other health information. The Center focuses on a range of topics related to consumers’ rights to their own medical records and privacy protections afforded to this information. The Center has expertise in the Health Privacy Rule issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act as well as state laws that address medical record rights and privacy. The Center provides information on these topics to a broad range of stakeholders such as policy makers, health care professionals, consumers, and the media through research studies, policy analyses, testimony, and consumer guides.
http://hpi.georgetown.edu/privacy/records.html

The Health Privacy Project
The Center for Democracy and Technology’s Health Privacy Project addresses policy questions, including: the proper role of notice and consent, the right of patients to access their own health records, identification and authentication, secondary uses, and enforcement mechanisms. The Center for Democracy and Technology’s Health Privacy Project also tackles the traditional exchange of records among health plans and providers, as well as new consumer access services and personal health records. The Health Privacy Project is a resource for information on medical records confidentiality. Its web site includes information on federal HIPAA regulations as well as state laws of all 50 states.
www.healthprivacy.org
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Consumer Reports Health’s Cover America Tour realized the impact of the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) when they visited Sheila (above) in Gulfport, Miss., the day after her 50th birthday.

When she attempted to apply for health insurance, Sheila was surprised when she was rejected for an individual health insurance policy by three different companies. She was even more shocked when she learned why: Her record with MIB listed her as having a history of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Sheila does suffer from asthma, but COPD is supposed to be used to indicate more severe diseases of the lungs, such as emphysema or severe bronchitis. No company would insure her with this damaging mark on her record.

Sheila eventually traced the problem to a coding disparity at her doctor’s office. She says letters and phone calls to both her doctor and MIB have been to no avail, and the problem remains uncorrected on her record, effectively blocking her from obtaining individual health coverage. Unable to obtain health insurance coverage because of this medical coding error on her MIB report, Sheila has been forced to exhaust her 401(k) savings to pay out of pocket for healthcare costs.

Watch Sheila’s story and, before you apply for insurance or pay another monthly premium, make sure you request a copy of your medical report file from the Medical Information Bureau (MIB).

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On behalf of families, workers, and businesses, AnnualMedicalReport.com is dedicated to improving privacy protections for personal medical information, establishing technological standards for insurance company use of consumer reporting data, and reducing out-of-pocket costs for consumers by detecting and deterring insurance company fraud and discrimination.

AnnualMedicalReport.com is dedicated to achieving three main goals:

1.  AWARENESS—Improve public knowledge about the existence of consumer “medical report” files collected by the nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies and sold to insurance companies.

2.  SECURITY—Establish a secure, online source for consumers to request disclosure of annual medical report files guaranteed under Federal law (FCRA and FACTA).

3.  FINANCIAL SAVINGS—Save consumers $1 billion dollars before the end of 2014 by detecting, correcting, and deterring corporate insurance fraud and discrimination.

The Washington Post reports that Milliman, Inc. and Ingenix Inc. compile individual “medical report” profiles on insurance consumers. Amid growing privacy concerns, the Washington Post calls these reports, “health “credit reports” drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans.”

How does it this technology work?

“When an insurer makes an online query about an applicant, Ingenix or Milliman’s servers scour the data and within minutes or less return reports to a central server at the company. The server aggregates the information going back as far as five years, including the drugs and dosages prescribed, dates filled and refilled, the therapeutic class and the name and address of the prescribing doctor.”

Then comes the analysis. The MedPoint data tool, sold by Ingenix Inc., provides insurers a “pharmacy risk score,” or a number that represents an “expected risk” for a group of people. Of course, higher scores imply higher medical costs. Likewise, Milliman Inc.‘s IntelliScript codes pharmaceutical drugs for classification, according to the insurer’s instructions. So called “high-risk” codes could include AIDS cocktail drugs and cancer medications (both Ingenix and Milliman refuse to release their coding standards).

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On February 6, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission filed a decision and order of their complaint against Ingenix, Inc. (In the Matter of INGENIX, INC., A CORPORATION. DOCKET NO. C-4214).

Consumers should be aware that Ingenix Inc. sells a medical data product called “MedPoint,” which collects and distributes personal medical information to paying corporations.

“Ingenix Inc., operates MedPoint, a medical data collection and sales technology. The medical profile generated by MedPoint includes, but is not limited to, prescription drugs, including dosage and number of refills filled by the insurance applicant for the previous five years. It also includes for each drug, the name and address of the dispensing pharmacy, as well as the name and address of the prescribing doctor, including specialty medical practice. The medical profile generated by MedPoint analyzes the individual’s prescription drug history, and provides, based on that analysis, potential medical conditions that may be present and predictive scores for the individual.“

All consumers can request an annual copy of their MedPoint reports from Ingenix Inc. by calling (888) 206-0335 or writing to: MedPoint Compliance, Ingenix, Inc., 2525 Lake Park Blvd, West Valley City Utah 84120.  Additional contact information can be found at www.ingenix.com/ContactUs/.

The public Federal Trade Commission decision and order against Ingenix, Inc. is reprinted below, in full.

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If you wouldn’t apply for credit without reviewing your credit report, don’t apply for health and life insurance without checking your medical report.

Health and life insurance corporations have powerful technologies for evaluating and pricing individual insurance applicants: personal “medical report” files. The Washington Post says that these medical reports, which are like credit reports for your health records, have been created for more than 200 million Americans.

Alarmingly, your medical report files may include both medical and non-medical information about you. For instance, personal data collected by the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) may include medical conditions, credit report history, driving records, criminal activity, drug use, sexual orientation, participation in hazardous sports, and personal or family genetic history. Using information from your medical report files, insurance companies can charge higher premiums or terminate coverage. (more…)