Researchers from Center for Disease Control and Prevention Report Details of New Studies and Findings in the Area of Health Insurance (Health Care…

Managed Care Weekly Digest

Researchers from Center for Disease Control and Prevention Report Details of New Studies and Findings in the Area of Health Insurance (Health Care Communication Laws in the United States, 2013: Implications for Access to Sensitive Services for ...)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- A new study on Health Insurance is now available. According to news reporting from Atlanta, Georgia, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "Young adults may not seek sensitive health services when confidentiality cannot be ensured. To better understand the policy environment for insured dependent confidentiality, we systematically assessed legal requirements for health insurance plan communications using WestlawNext to create a jurisdiction-level data set of health insurance plan communication regulations as of March 2013."

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Center for Disease Control and Prevention, "Two jurisdictions require plan communications be sent to a policyholder, 22 require plan communications to be sent to an insured, and 36 give insurers discretion to send plan communications to the policyholder or insured. Six jurisdictions prohibit disclosure, and 3 allow a patient to request nondisclosure of certain patient information. Our findings suggest that in many states, health insurers are given considerable discretion in determining to whom plan communications containing sensitive health information are sent."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Future research could use this framework to analyze the association between state laws concerning insured dependent confidentiality and public health outcomes and related sensitive services."

For more information on this research see: Health Care Communication Laws in the United States, 2013: Implications for Access to Sensitive Services for Insured Dependents. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 2017;23(2):148-151. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Journal of Public Health Management and Practice - journals.lww.com/jphmp/pages/default.aspx)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting R. Cramer, Center Dis Control & Prevent, Div STD Prevent, Atlanta, GA 30329, United States. Additional authors for this research include R. Cramer and J.S. Leichliter (see also Health Insurance).

Keywords for this news article include: Atlanta, Georgia, United States, North and Central America, Health Insurance, Legal Issues, Center for Disease Control and Prevention.