Should insurance companies have access to patients medical records?
Risk of being denied access would be relatively small reduction in companies’ profits EDITOR,–P H Smee claims that access to medical records is necessary to enable an insurance company to prevent some policyholders from profiting at the expense of others.1 The company, however, is not merely an honest broker apportioning risk between customers. It has a vested interest in maximising its profits, and this is surely the main reason for requesting medical details that would otherwise remain confidential between patients and doctors. To minimise losses, companies must be able to identify policyholders who are likely to make claims before they have paid many years’ worth of premiums. The issue at question is how far they should be entitled to use medical notes, compiled for an entirely different purpose, in order to do this. As Smee suggests, the principle of insurance is based on risk. What additional risk would devolve to . . . [Full text of this article] CiteULike Complore Connotea Del.
