everything is coded. your insurance will know once your provider submits the claims and pre-authorizations with the health codes for treatment.
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Apple's iOS 'Health Records' Feature Now Works With 75+ Providers
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everything is coded. your insurance will know once your provider submits the claims and pre-authorizations with the health codes for treatment.
Ack, why don't they add Quest diagnostics directly?
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It's hard to hide from insurance. Did you know all prescription information is fed into a national database? It's probable that insurance companies get a feed from that, which means they know what conditions you have, even if you're paying in cash.
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It's hard to hide from insurance. Did you know all prescription information is fed into a national database? It's probable that insurance companies get a feed from that, which means they know what conditions you have, even if you're paying in cash.
As someone who works for one of these "crooked" companies, if you have a chronic illness, that's going to be hard to hide, if it's hidden at all. We might not have all the details, but we know which drugs you're taking, how often you visit the doctor, which services we're being billed for, what surgeries you're having, etc. That's like saying "You can't guess which coin is in my hand, but I can tell you it's not a penny, dime, quarter, half-dollar or whole-dollar". We don't just get a bill that says "you owe us $80,000 for 'none of your damn business'" and pay it. That's absurd. We also have staff that help those with Chronic Diseases. If you have diabetes for example, we will discover that (it will be shared with us legally) and you're likely to have someone contact you in an attempt to help you better manage your disease (all free of charge). Sure, that helps bring our costs down. But it's also a fantastic benefit for those who accept it.
Your theory that ALL insurance companies are crooked and out to screw you however we can is a complete joke with absolutely no evidence to back that up.
There are a couple inaccuracies here in the comments, so I felt compelled to post. Sorry.
1. HL7 FHIR is the newest standard for healthcare interoperability (i.e. sharing data between systems). The previous standards are 20-30 years old. These standards are really a template but don't speak much to the content of the messages. There are additional standards for certain types of data exchange that HL7 also formulates, mostly leaning back on the HL7 FHIR or HL7 v2 standards, for instance there's a specific guide for immunization data which is typically used for public health reporting. There's more layers than this too, but let's just say healthcare data is extremely complicated and diverse, and so it is very complex to share electronically in a meaningful way.
2. While there would normally not be much motivation to adopt a standard, the U.S. federal government has had a huge part in causing EHR adoption though the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use incentives for providers, and they set standards for Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT). The next version of the standards will likely require FHIR adoption, which will make it a lot easier to share data in a more open source way (plug and play apps), unlike now which his heavily controlled by private companies who set very high prices for basic activities.
3. When you sign up for insurance you attest that you have disclosed all illnesses. If you're trying to hide something, it could come back and bite you when you have a complication of that condition. Additionally, you also typically agree to have your insurance company have full access to your records at any provider office you visit. This includes cash payments. This is standard because the insurance company is on the hook for a series of quality measures which are tied to their accreditation, among other reasons. Most states have laws that protect individuals from bad practices on the insurer side. If you were inappropriately denied a claim, etc., you should be able to report it to someone and they will investigate. But if you lie to the insurer no law will protect you much. That's partially because your lie can impact the rates of everyone else covered by the plan and you might not be paying your fair share based upon your cost risk to the plan.
4. HIPAA explains requirements to keep your health information confidential, and circumstances where it is okay for a covered entity (like your doctor's office) to disclose it and whether they need a special consent. There are a lot of scenarios where it is okay without a special consent (called payment, treatment, and operations), such as claims to your health insurer, referrals or records sent to other doctors, data sent to IT companies that host the EHR or apps (like Apple), etc. In some cases the covered entity needs to enter into a data sharing agreement to set the requirements for how the data is protected, in transit and at rest, what happens if there is a breach, etc. I think my point here is that your healthcare data is all over the place and that's absolutely legal, and it also should benefit you because your doctors can have more information or better tools to make sure they know how to treat your illnesses. We often address the sensitive to health data sharing in this way: You don't want your health data shared, but when you get to the hospital you want them to have your whole medical history instantly. These two concepts don't work well together, and at some point there has to be a balance of the desire for absolute privacy and the desire for your trusted healthcare professionals to have the right information at the right time to help you.
1. HL7 FHIR is the newest standard for healthcare interoperability (i.e. sharing data between systems). The previous standards are 20-30 years old. These standards are really a template but don't speak much to the content of the messages. There are additional standards for certain types of data exchange that HL7 also formulates, mostly leaning back on the HL7 FHIR or HL7 v2 standards, for instance there's a specific guide for immunization data which is typically used for public health reporting. There's more layers than this too, but let's just say healthcare data is extremely complicated and diverse, and so it is very complex to share electronically in a meaningful way.
2. While there would normally not be much motivation to adopt a standard, the U.S. federal government has had a huge part in causing EHR adoption though the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use incentives for providers, and they set standards for Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT). The next version of the standards will likely require FHIR adoption, which will make it a lot easier to share data in a more open source way (plug and play apps), unlike now which his heavily controlled by private companies who set very high prices for basic activities.
3. When you sign up for insurance you attest that you have disclosed all illnesses. If you're trying to hide something, it could come back and bite you when you have a complication of that condition. Additionally, you also typically agree to have your insurance company have full access to your records at any provider office you visit. This includes cash payments. This is standard because the insurance company is on the hook for a series of quality measures which are tied to their accreditation, among other reasons. Most states have laws that protect individuals from bad practices on the insurer side. If you were inappropriately denied a claim, etc., you should be able to report it to someone and they will investigate. But if you lie to the insurer no law will protect you much. That's partially because your lie can impact the rates of everyone else covered by the plan and you might not be paying your fair share based upon your cost risk to the plan.
4. HIPAA explains requirements to keep your health information confidential, and circumstances where it is okay for a covered entity (like your doctor's office) to disclose it and whether they need a special consent. There are a lot of scenarios where it is okay without a special consent (called payment, treatment, and operations), such as claims to your health insurer, referrals or records sent to other doctors, data sent to IT companies that host the EHR or apps (like Apple), etc. In some cases the covered entity needs to enter into a data sharing agreement to set the requirements for how the data is protected, in transit and at rest, what happens if there is a breach, etc. I think my point here is that your healthcare data is all over the place and that's absolutely legal, and it also should benefit you because your doctors can have more information or better tools to make sure they know how to treat your illnesses. We often address the sensitive to health data sharing in this way: You don't want your health data shared, but when you get to the hospital you want them to have your whole medical history instantly. These two concepts don't work well together, and at some point there has to be a balance of the desire for absolute privacy and the desire for your trusted healthcare professionals to have the right information at the right time to help you.
1) Anything medical: labs, X-rays, studies, pharmacy prescriptions, where any third party billing is involved is already accessed by your insurer. 2) All the forms we patients fill out for any insurance provider allow/permit access to all our data. 3) Furthermore, medical bills also may go to credit reporting agencies (remember the Equifax breach?). 4) Finally, not disclosing an illness, or knowledge of an illness, to obtain medical insurance may reflect fraud and result in loss of medical coverage or worse. 5,6,...) and I could go on and on... And don't get me started about errors in our medical records which now are accessible worldwide. It is actually difficult to do anything except perhaps see a doctor 'off the books'. And it is perfectly permissible to ask to review the information your doctor is putting in your record with a view to confidentiality.
That's exactly what http://1up.health/ does. You can use it on any app android, iOS, web app, facebook messenger, whatever. Plus it has connectivity to electronic health data from 180 health systems.
It is a START, but security needs to be uppermost in the minds of everyone who will use this.
Then it can be made to be universal so that one can go to ANY doctor or hospital and will be able to receive treatment without having to fill out the same forms that were filled out multiple times previously.
Then it can be made to be universal so that one can go to ANY doctor or hospital and will be able to receive treatment without having to fill out the same forms that were filled out multiple times previously.
So I just tried this and while my provider, IHC, was listed in the Health app clicking on it brings up a web page requiring an username and password. Am I supposed to call the insurer to get that? How in practice do you use it? The app isn't exactly informative.
I dislike insurance companies, but if you want them to pay stuff for you, something gotta give. There’s no free lunch.
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But at least Apple tried to consolidate and negotiate with the players. Similar to what happened to iTunes and the music industry. Meanwhile the rest of Silicon Valley feels they’re too superior to talk with the other industries.
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People don’t mind giving their DNA to some random Silicon Valley startup. Why suddenly security is such a concern here? Not that I don’t care about security, just a sarcastic remark about the attitude of some people.
Thanks to @andrewsipes informative links below, it’s possible that a contact for the UK is listed herein:
http://www.hl7.org/Special/committees/international/leadership.cfm?ref=common
I was quite surprised to find a contact for Canada as well and our central contact post a link not far from BMO tower in downtown Toronto !
Much appreciated. It’s a LOT to go through let alone understand.
My family doctor as well keeps a LOT of paper records. He’s been my doctor since I was six years old and they do have a few computers to check and reference our Health Card information and validity.
It seems that there is a LOt of jargon being used without any description to help many of us understand what’s going on. I’m more interested in finding out if anyone regardless of country can source ALL their medical history in a meaningful and understandable way, as a digital record. Moreover is there clear policies in place that when a person shares data with their doctor, such as mine who does NOt have their own labs, can control what the hospital and the lab have access to, as well as see what data they’ve requested and seen, werher this new standard will peompr the user to approve one time, term access (say 30/60/90 days, or if in life or death emergencies will be granted to what data in the event of saving their lives.
This is great and has a huge potential. I like that privacy (obviously) is a major proponent of the feature. This hasn't been pushed so obviously Apple is just getting their feet wet currently, but I can see this becoming a major platform for healthcare providers.
You would reach out to IHC to ask for an invite to your portal account to view your data.
One of my doctors is part of NYU Langone in NY, and they already use the MyChart site, which is actually really great, it gives an excellent view of all my quarterly lab results (monitoring a long term condition) in numeric and also chart form for easy trend viewing. I just tried pulling it into the Health app, and it worked fine, but the presentation isn't nearly as good in Health as on their native site. I can see though how this would be beneficial if I had multiple data sources that would be aggregated into the one app.
I'm so glad you responded. I've been wanting to tell one of you vultures "how it is" for SO long, it's not even funny. Yes, ALL insurance companies are crooked - including the one with which you are employed. They (insurance companies) do anything and everything they can within their power, moral or immoral, to save a damn dollar for the company. It's all about boosting that profit margin at the expense of the insured. You know it... and I know it, too. Insurance companies like to play God... and it's wrong. It's just plain wrong, brother. I don't need to, nor will I, give specifics on cases I've had to deal with - I'm legally obligated to non-disclosure. However, rest assured, I work for a "business" that doesn't like you people very much. We have uncovered so many immoral cases of non-payment and coverage denial that I bet it would make EVEN YOU cringe and then make you step back and completely rethink the business you're in right now. You wouldn't believe some of the crap I've seen insurance companies try to pull!
Secondly, I did say "previously unknown chronic illness". Meaning... *nobody* knew about it previously, including both my doctor and the insurance company as well as myself, for example. So, there's no way you can use your "process of elimination" example with MY example. The illness was "previously unknown". If you're not sure what that means... Google is your friend. It helps (a lot) to thoroughly read what someone posts before responding, you know.
Thirdly, I originally was referring to exposure of detailed information that would be gathered by the Apple Watch... not what's already in someone's medical records sitting in a doctor's office. I'm talking about very specific, personal information such as... how many times my heart rate rose above 110 beats per minute within twenty-four hours. If insurance companies thought they had a way to get their grimy little hands on that information to help determine one's potential profit/risk ratio, they would stop at NOTHING to get it. Do you know why? Because ALL American insurance companies are crooked... and nothing more than carefully thought-out and curated money machines that take advantage of the insured in any way that they legally can get away with. YES... YOURS TOO.
I don't give a darn what you say... you work for a CROOKED industry - period. And, yes, I have seen all of the PROOF anyone could ever want or need to see. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to share that information publicly because of legal obligations within my profession. However, it doesn't surprise me in the least that someone who makes their living from trying to give back the least they can is opposed to my assertion that all insurance companies are immoral, crooked money machines. I will spend the rest of my able-bodied days fighting you people to get honest, hard-working people the services and coverage they paid for, were promised, and deserve!
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And yet (of course), the VA is not part of this. This is unsurprising, as one VA hospital is entirely unable to even electronically query records from another VA hospital, in 2018. The VA is getting better under the current administration, but eight decades of incompetent buffoonery will not get fixed overnight.
You've just lost all your credibility.
I work for a non-profit company.
Annnnd I'm done reading.
It sounds like you've had a rough go at it. But I'm not about to get drawn into an argument with someone who holds such strong feelings. Clearly a reasonable conversation isn't happening here, so it's best to just drop it now and move on. Best of luck to you.
Apple is usually ahead of the game, but in this case others already have more advanced platforms, e.g. www.seqster.com connecting thousands of hospitals and medical groups.
Interesting. My guess is that they are both using some kind of standard file/info elements and putting different interfaces on them. And that Apple is not trying to compete with these types of companies.
In the end it would be best for users if they didn’t have to use one company’s system, but if the records could be coded in a way that allowed different programs to access them and display them in different ways.
Wanna see how this all shakes out.
The goal here is simple. Make these little super computers which can fit into our pocket offer something in such as way so as to trick the human race into thinking they can not live without them. People already have become brainwashed into thinking that they simply can not walk out of the door, or even into another room within their own houses, without having their smart phones in their hands or on their person. What do you think will happen if these companies can make people think their smart phones are needed to monitor their persistent health?
I'll tell you what will happen... more riches for them. And that's all it's about.
I'll tell you what will happen... more riches for them. And that's all it's about.