According to a recent Business Insider article, some health insurers and hospitals buy consumers’ spending data in order to “identify high risk patients and curtail bad health habits.”
While patient medical records are protected under HIPAA, other personal health information can be obtained from store loyalty program transactions, credit and debit card histories, and other public records sold by data brokers. This information may include whether you currently have a gym membership or regularly buy fast food, cigarettes, or over-the-counter medications.
The article notes that Carolinas Health Care, which operates more than 900 medical centers in North and South Carolina, started entering consumer data on two million patients into predictive models that assign risk scores to patients. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, within two years the company will distribute the scores to doctors and nurses so that they can identify high risk patients and intervene before they become ill.
