Why Can't I get Insurance?
Years ago when I practiced in Colorado, I had a patient that required hospitalization due to a severe reaction to the bite of a Black Widow spider. He had severe muscle spasms, nausea, and vomiting for five days. He told me that 17 years previously, when he lived in California, he had reacted similarly to a Black Widow bite. I was very surprised when I submitted the bill to the insurance company to get a rejection letter saying that they would not reimburse for my services "because it was a pre-existing condition"! The rejection didn't bother me - it was simply a matter of sending a letter to the insurance company stating that this was a different spider.
What really bothered me was that the insurance company had ready access to the fact that 17 years before, in a different state, under a different health insurance company, he had been treated for the same diagnosis. If you don't think big brother is watching you, you had better think again. The "men in black" are keeping tabs on all your illnesses and symptoms, all the better to be able to exclude you from coverage when you need it from health, life, or disability insurance. Did you give them permission to collect and share this information? Probably not. But they argue that they do this "only to prevent fraud".
Tell that to the woman who recently e-mailed me describing how she had been denied health insurance because of the "report from Dr. Stein's office". Interesting, she thought, since she had never visited a Dr. Stein. She had no idea, of course, just what information the men in black had shared with the company to whom she was applying for insurance.
When you have been turned down it is too late. You need to know what information the men in black are collecting. I refer to them as the "men in black" because the existence of this agency is as unknown as the agency in the films of that name. This agency, the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) collects information from claims submitted on everyone in the United States.
As a physician, this concerns me because I may need to send a patient for a stress test. The hospital tells me that they cannot bill the stress test with the diagnosis code for "chest pain" - that it needs to be the code for "heart disease". That is BS, I say - obviously I am doing this test in order to find out whether or not they have heart disease. My concern is that the MIB will label the patient as having heart disease regardless of the outcome of this test. And heaven help you if you try to buy health, life, or disability insurance after having a stress test - even if you passed it you may be denied.
The only good news is that you can find out what is in your file. The MIB allows you to request a copy of your file once every year, and you can submit corrections or addendums. You can get information at their website at: www.mib.com. They now call themselves "the MIB Group" since they apparently have diversified into new ways of making our lives challenging.