Prominent Health Insurer Abandons Plan to Ask about Omissions in Patients’ Medical Histories
Posted on February 13, 2008 by Michael Douglas, MD, MBA
What happens to the doctor-patient relationship when its sanctity is tested? Just ask Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Hillary Clinton, or… a bunch of angry doctors. The Blues of California rescinded a plan which would have required physicians to report to the health insurer patients who might have omitted key information in their histories having to do with pre-existing conditions.
In a letter to physicians last week, Blue Cross asked the doctors to “identify members who have failed to disclose medical conditions on their applications that may be considered pre-existing.”
It went on to say that “Blue Cross has the right to cancel a member’s policy back to its effective date for failure to disclose material medical history.”
[...] about a turnaround. Doctor Pundit recently reported on the effort by the Blues in California to essentially invade the ostensible privacy of the [...]