Health billing company tried to get users' medical history and sell it back to them
Source: Wall Street Journal
In a case that illustrates the pitfalls of providing health data online, the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday settled charges with an online health billing company that it alleged misled consumers about how their medical data would be collected.
The Atlanta-based company, PaymentsMD LLC, offered an online portal where consumers could register to pay medical bills. The company didn’t adequately inform members that it used information drawn from the bills to seek more detailed medical data from pharmacies, labs and insurance companies, the FTC said.
PaymentsMD collected the data as part of a planned service called Patient Health Record. Customers would be able to buy a form containing a record of their health data, including diagnoses, procedures, and prescriptions. The service purported to offer a unified view of a patient’s medical history.
... The case raises questions about the boundaries of consent when companies collect personal information. According to the FTC’s complaint, consumers consented to the collection of their health information, but further authorizations were buried in fine print in a small window. Consumers signed off by clicking a box in the window.
Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/12/03/beware-the-fine-print-ftc-settles-medical-data-case/
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