Why would Aetna need permission from me to give information to their disability department?

Question

I herniated a disk and have filed for disability. I have seen all the appropriate Doctors, all of which are well known. I had various Doctors fill out paper work all of which verified the condition. I have already gone thru one cortisone treatment trying to avoid surgery.

I received a letter from Aetna wanting me to give permission to share my records with their disabllity department. It reads:

"This authorization allows Aetna to disclose protected health information (PHI) to Aetna Disability Services which will be used to coordinate management of health care and disabilty benefits."

I have several other health conditions with medications I take for them.

Why would they need this unless there were negative consequences on my behalf?

It is the same company, should they not already have this authority?

Answer 1

Hi Anthony.  I understand your concern but this in no way implies negative consequences to you.  I worked in the insurance field for many years and wrote many of these authorizations.  There are a couple possibilities. First, there is the time limit on all authorizations that insurers (the public & the law) consider reasonable.  We always requested a new one after one year.  People, me included, don't like the idea of signing an authorization when I first applied 5 years ago and letting them use this forever to get more information about me whenever they want.  I believe the time factor is the most likely scenario.  The other aspect was the "reason" we obtained authorizations in the first place. We requested one to  be signed when we considered someone for insurance so we could review their medical history and determine eligibility.  We did not like to use file information obtained for this purpose to then be used for a completely different purpose such as claim evaluation.  Therefore, it was common practice to request a new authorization.  Between the "time" factor and the "purpose" factor, I consider their request entirely reasonable.  

Good luck Anthony.

Answer 2

It's a federal law that they get authorization from you to disclose medical information to anyone--umbrella company or not.

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/