New York Daily News-Opinion
Originally Published April 1, 2012
After I got laid off from my job last November, I started shopping for health insurance and a funny thing happened: BlueCross BlueShield emailed me someone else’s application.The only similarity between me and this other applicant was that we’re both named Karen. I live in New York; she lives in Virginia. We have different last names, different Social Security numbers, different health histories. I know this because all of it was contained in the application BlueCross emailed to me — and under federal law, all of it is supposed to be confidential.
By emailing me the other Karen’s health-insurance application, BlueCross violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. An angry consumer could find plenty of grounds — breach of confidentiality, negligence — to sue.
The entire story is here.