News
RACGP to address life insurance inquiry
RACGP President Dr Bastian Seidel will address today’s Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services inquiry into the life insurance industry.
RACGP President Dr Bastian Seidel is particularly concerned that patients may not disclose mental health issues due to fears over their insurance.
Dr Seidel will discuss the difficulty GPs face in balancing patient privacy with medico-legal or insurance policy requirements, and outline the RACGP’s concerns about the way in which patients with mental health issues experience the life insurance process.
In particular, Dr Seidel is troubled by the idea that patients may not disclose significant information regarding their mental health or other health-related issues for fear that it might affect a future insurance application. He believes this represents significant barriers to disclosure and treatment.
Dr Seidel will also discuss a number of specific points:
- The RACGP’s position on the amount and type of information a doctor should provide to an insurance company about a patient
- RACGP suggestions to help mitigate potential issues arising from a request for the release of a patient’s medical record
- GPs’ concerns regarding the provision of a patient’s medical record to a life insurer as it relates to mental health
- Potential problems regarding the provision of information relating to genetic test results
- Information provided to GPs in terms of managing requests for patient medical records
- Continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities that are available to GPs to improve their understanding of issues concerning the provision of medical records or reports
- How often GPs are requested to provide medical records, as opposed to medical reports
- RACGP concerns regarding patient understanding of the implications of the release of their medical record
- Ramifications GPs expect to experience as a result of providing a patient’s medical record
- Whether a doctor should provide all of a patient’s medical information to an insurance company when only part of the information would be relevant
Dr Seidel is scheduled to address the hearing 11.30 am. The live stream will be available
here.
life-insurance senate-inquiry
newsGP weekly poll
What is your chief concern with role substitution?