HIPPA Privacy Violation?

[Michvaladez]

WA

Our employer is using a HR company that is looking into some sort of health insurance for our company. They had us all fill out a complete a health questionaire before giving us any quote. Like detailed, std history, heart, cancer, pregnancies, history... I was under the assumption they can only ask things like your gender, age and smoker non smoker etc to get a general idea to give us a quote for group rates? They even asked for our social.

[ecmst12]

HIPAA never forbids anyone from ASKING you for your health information. Nor you from providing it. It only regulates how/when CERTAIN people can share/release your information. The regulations affect doctors, insurance companies, and to a limited extent, employers, but only in some circumstances. There is nothing illegal about asking for or even requiring you to provide this information.

If your employer is thinking about getting a self-funded plan, they might want this information so that they can get realistic estimates on what annual claims cost might be. Group plans can't have any individual underwriting, but they can have the risk of the GROUP assessed for premium cost, too.

[cbg]

First of all, it is HIPAA, not HIPPA.

Second, your assumption is incorrect. HIPAA ONLY regulates who can give out your information. It does not prohibit anyone from asking for information.