Protect our healthcare data

To the editor:

Déjà vu. The Municipal Labor Committee leadership wants its union members to approve healthcare cost savings.

First there was the Medicare Advantage debacle. Then last Fall, there was a rush to approve the new NYCE-PPO health plan, awarded to United Healthcare and Emblem Health. Now the MLC is asking unions to hand over to United  and Emblem the Welfare Fund pharmacy benefits data of union members,  spouses and their children.

A Feb. 10 memo from the MLC Board to union members promises that this would  “promote better care for our member participants” but that 75 percent of unions must agree to “trigger” savings.

According to Sept. 10 MLC meeting minutes obtained by “Educators of NYC” that threshold would result in a “full $100 million credit.” The five executive board members were committed to doing this. Vice-chair Henry Garrido said that the savings would come from United and Emblem using this patient data for better care coordination.

The MLC is promising to protect the confidentiality of the data, and that it complies with federal privacy requirements under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). However, New York State has additional privacy safeguards that haven’t been addressed.

But most troubling is that health insurance companies have used drug histories to deny care. They are proxies for medical conditions.

This could result in risk assessments resulting in denial of care or more preauthorizations. AI algorithms are increasingly being used for this purpose.

Each union is being asked to sign a confidentiality agreement for data sharing, but individual members and retirees may not be consulted, and definitely won’t be allowed to opt out.

Now is the time for union members to tell leadership NOT to share our private information. Once the insurance companies and AI have our data, there is no taking it back.

Harry Weiner