A letter from LeAnne Gamm (11/15, “Europe rations health care”) states, “I demand my health records be private between myself and my doctor. How about you?” She was responding to an article on Britain’s National Health Service inviting patients with high-risk diagnoses to receive a flu vaccine.
As a coding specialist who files claims for more than 50 physicians, I want Ms. Gamm and all other readers to know that their health records are not only between them and their doctors. They are also shared with their insurance companies. Every time a patient is seen by a physician and a claim is submitted to an insurance company, there must be a diagnosis code on the claim. Not only do insurance companies know your diagnoses, but most of them also know the drugs you take.
If our government had access to that information and sent invitations to high-risk patients as they did in Britain, pregnant women and parents of small children (yes, insurance companies know how old you are, too) would not have had to wait in long lines in this country for the H1N1 vaccine.
Peggy Oxler
Overland Park
The government has all the neccessary vital information in regards to age and who we are, so long as your a legal.
Posted by: NoMoreMrNiceGuy | November 22, 2009 at 08:01 AM
The last paragraph doesn’t make any sense. Long lines are caused by a vaccine shortage, not because people in high-risk categories don’t know who they are.
I saw what government officials did with Joe the Plumber’s records. They don’t need to know why I visit my doctor.
Posted by: Kate | November 21, 2009 at 11:17 PM