This is Tech

As more and more people start posting the details of their personal lives online, it is just a matter of time before insurance companies start using this information to profile insurance applicants and investigate claims. Should this be permitted? Depending on who the Facebook user grants access to, information posted to Facebook is not neccessarily intended for the public at large. In the litigation context, however, this information would likely be discoverable.

Is there any reason that the law should protect people from this, or are Facebook users to blame for posting their information where it can be discovered?

The following is a blog post from a site called filife.com describing how Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is fighting two class action lawsuits over its use of Facebook information to deny claims.

Why Health Insurers Want to Read your Facebook Page — FiLife: “Why Health Insurers Want to Read your Facebook Page

Can your Facebook profile prevent you from getting health insurance?

That might depend on the outcome of an upcoming court case. As Portfolio explains, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is entrenched in two class-action lawsuits regarding whether or not blog posts, LiveJournal entries or any other online writings are fair game for review by health-insurance companies.

The plaintiffs, who are parents of teenagers, took legal action when Horizon denied their kids coverage for anorexia and bulimia. Law.com reports that Horizon claims that the teenagers’ online postings, e-mails, journal and diary entries can offer insight about the cause of the disorder, which would determine whether or not the insurer (in this case, Horizon), is responsible for payment. Under New Jersey law, mental illness coverage is only required if it is biologically based. We don’t know what the other causes might be (Environmental? Peer Pressure? Anyone have an opinion?), but therein lie the conflict.

We’re no cyber law experts, but it doesn’t seem like Horizon makes much of a distinction between an e-mail between two people and a public blog post that anyone could find through Google. So if Horizon’s logic was applied 10 years go (pre-Myspace messaging), would notes two people passed in class be fair game? A diary under a pillow that a teenager had shared with a single best friend?

A ruling in the case last December by a Newark judge took the position that ‘the writings are therapy tools meant for self-reflection’ and that if disclosed would cause stress, anxiety and the potential for relapse, Portfolio reports. The internet promoting good health - it seems strange that an insurance company would try and undermine that.

The use of social-networking information for health-insurance eligibility purposes could put us all on a slippery slope. What if I blog about having headaches? Or post that a family member died of cancer? What about photos of people drinking? Can I expect my premiums to go up, even before I’ve set foot in a doctor’s office?

This case is very complicated and will be locked up in the slow-moving wheels of justice for a while. But as we fret about the high numbers of uninsured young people, how craptastic insurance really is even when you have it and continue to try and use the internet for better, it’s something to think about.

-Mary Pilon”