GPs Concerns About Doctor-Patient Confidentiality
Dr Joanna Sherratt-Wyer said concern was expressed about the potential loss of doctor-patient confidentiality in the proposed new health legislation that was recently passed.
Dr Sherratt-Wyer said, “During a meeting of GPs held at the Department of General Practice at KEMH last week, concern was expressed about the potential loss of doctor-patient confidentiality in the proposed new legislation.
“The legislation includes a major shift in the regulatory authority for the insurance companies towards the Bermuda Health Council (BHeC), which gives the BHeC authority to request information from health insurance providers.
“The legislation is worded such that the BHeC can now request, “any other relevant information required by the Council for the purposes of health system analysis, planning and management”.
“The GPs are extremely concerned that this wording is too broad, and has the potential to jeopardize an individual’s right to have their personal medical information kept confidential.
“By entering into an agreement with a health insurance company, patients agree to their medical information being shared with the health insurance company where appropriate (for example, in order to process claims). However, they have not agreed that their personal health information should then be released to any other organization. This affects everyone in Bermuda who has local health insurance.
“Patients have an inherent right to doctor-patient confidentiality. Any legislation that could potentially jeopardize this is of serious concern to the GPs acting on behalf of their patients and we would be very keen to see this clause re-worded or removed before it becomes law.”
The Bermuda Health Council said, “The power for the health insurers’ licensor to request any relevant information from insurers has long been in place in the Health Insurance Act 1970, and patient confidentiality has never been compromised.
“BHeC collects data for monitoring purposes and without it reports such as the National Health Accounts, Health in Review or the Adult Health Survey could not be produced. These reports have generated seminal information for the public and health system stakeholders, and are available on BHeC’s web site.
“The types of analyses BHeC conducts do not require patient information and there are no plans to request any such data. Any data requested from insurers is anonymised and used for monitoring health system trends in health status, utilization and expenditure.”
MDs are some of the smartest people in the world, but please help them understand technology….and the usefullness of networking. 1) There are other countries that use electronic medical records and have put in stop measures to prevent sharing. 2) ID patients by a patient ID number!!!! Also have key flags in the record or chart that the id # can correlate with (ie birth marks, surgeries etc) The Names should only be privy to an attending physician and those that need it!!
I cannot understand how a person’s name would be considered “any other relevant information required by the Council for the purposes of health system analysis, planning and management”. Right now the insurance company knows a patient’s name and their medical history and I have no problem with that as that is only way I can be covered. But I don’t understand how GPs could think that someone’s name is relevant to any type of analysis.
Well POKEY bermudians who work at these places love some gossip. Time they see their ace girls’s name come in they gonna spread her business like fire to all their friends. So GPs should be concerend now. Its already bad enough that insurance company workers knows everyones medical info.The girls that work in claims love looking through peoples files and seeing what they went to the Dr for.
@Technology – it’s not about electronic records and/or coding, or MDs intelligence. It’s about the open-ended nature of this small part of the legislation in question and the fact that other countries have Privacy Acts, Bermuda does not. I’m just glad the GPs have picked up on it – kudos to them.
@LaVF – please read comment above @Technology – this is for everyone’s protection, yours too, so it wouldn’t hurt to just tighten up the language by specifically excluding individual health records in the Health Council’s right to “any other information…” That’s all, this is not a personal attack on you or the PLP, just a note of caution from doctors who are concerned about their patients.
Bermuda does have PATI it is a privacy legislation. Which will protect a person should they desire to use it. I have to say BeHc gets tons of confidential information and do not disclose it. Don’t be so trusting of insurance companies either because your business can be put out on the street by the inside employees.
“Chardonay”, I think you need to re-read my e-mail. I don’t take the concern expressed by Dr Joanna Sherratt-Wyer. What has not been made clear by this article is if Dr. Sherratt-Wyer is expressing her own opinion or the opinion of other GPs.
As I wrote in my original post I cannot understand how a person’s name would be considered “any other relevant information required by the Council for the purposes of health system analysis, planning and management”.
It is my understanding that the Bermuda Health Council (BHC) is staffed by professionals just as individual medical practices are staffed by professionals. I would not expect my personal physician to provide my name to BHC if they are requesting statistical information.
PROFESSIONAL GOSSIPERS!!!
I should have written that “I don’t take Dr. Sherrat-Wyer’s comments as a personal attack”. I don’t know Dr. Sherrat-Wyer, and I can understand how you would connect me with the PLP. but I’m speaking as a private citizen who uses the health care system.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a problem with “doctors who are concerned with their patients” but refuse to speak openly of their concerns.
Ms Furbert,
Many thanks for taking the time to take the concerns of GPs seriously. It is our role to advocate on behalf of patients, and we as a group find the wording of the proposed new legislation particularly concerning, especially where it states that the BHeC can now request “any other relevant information required by the Council for the purposes of health system analysis, planning and management”.
This is not just about requesting names. This is about requesting personal information regarding individuals. Whilst we would all hope that those involved in the BHeC would always respect the privacy of others, even removing names does not always ensure confidentiality in a place as small as Bermuda.
It is this concern that has prompted a group of GPs (as mentioned quite clearly in the article above) to urge the Senate to reconsider the wording in this part of the proposal to ensure that the legislation is not too broad and open to abuse.
I think we have made our concern quite transparent, and this is first and foremost the right of every patient to confidentiality.
Having re-read the article on BerNews it appears the GP’s have not criticized the intent of the proposed new legislation which is to prohibit up-front payments. They have merely raised their concerns about one issue – protecting doctor/patient confidentiality. The Bermuda Health Council has given an assurance that there is no intention of asking for information about individual patients. However, the wording is very broad when you realize that it says the BHC can ask for any other relevant information required by the council. The GP’s do not appear to be attacking the legislation just raising a genuine concern.
Thank you Dr. Sherratt Wyer. Laverne how simple are you really? You say you wouldn’t expect your Dr. to provide your name for statistical information however if the law is not clear cut they could. It could be anyone on the other end of the line working in a position of trust and violates it for whatever reason. We see it all the time. What you may expect from a professional may not always be what you get.
“even removing names does not always ensure confidentiality in a place as small as Bermuda.” can we stop using this as an excuse for everything. bermuda is small but no smaller than many towns and municipalities around the world.
@ Come on says, “Laverne how simple are you really?” the point of this?