When you go to the doctor, you would assume the medical staff are treating your personal information with the care and professionalism it deserves, regardless of how much you’re paying for the visit.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case for patients at one medical chain operating in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, which is reportedly telling them to hand over valuable personal details if they wish to be bulk-billed.
If they don’t, they will have to pay the usual $90 for a GP visit minus the Medicare rebate.
Our Medical, privately owned by Cornerstone Health, operates around 30 medical, dental and radiology clinics across eastern Australia. The company heavily promotes its bulk-billing facilities.
In June, the company sent emails to its customers outlining a new rewards program, consumer group CHOICE reports. Nothing out of the ordinary, but buried at the bottom of the email was the line “non-members will be charged a private fee to see a GP.”
An Our Medical customer, who did not wish to be named, told CHOICE she attended the company’s clinic in Penrith, in Sydney’s western suburbs, and was told she had to create an account with the Our Medical app and rewards program in order to make an appointment.
She says she was told there would be a $90 fee for the appointment if she did not sign up.
Our Medical’s privacy policy says personal and health information collected on individual patients can be used “to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, service providers or other third parties”.
The policy also says that if the member permits device location settings on the device they are using for the rewards program, then their location will be tracked.
So, as it stands now, customers have a choice between paying $90 to see their GP or giving up personal identifying information.
Professor Jeannie Paterson, co-director of the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics at the University of Melbourne, says the practice is most likely not illegal. But she did describe it as “ethically outrageous”.
She says the policy’s statement that it will share data with third parties is “ridiculously unclear and undefined” and that using patients’ data for research and marketing is not what one would expect when signing up for a medical service.
“It’s so difficult for consumers to manage their personal information and their sensitive information because they’re used to dealing with doctors where the parameters and the ethics are well understood and well regulated,” Prof. Paterson says.
“Now we’re in that grey zone of dealing with digital platforms or digital health intermediaries where the assumptions that we had about how medical professionals handle information simply don’t apply,” she adds.
A spokesperson for Cornerstone Health told CHOICE the requirement to sign up to their app is legal and medical facilities are under no obligation to bulk bill any patients.
“However, general practice medical services are available on a bulk-billing basis at Our Medical to patients who have joined the rewards program. General practice medical services are available on a private billing basis to all other patients.
“Cornerstone Health handles all personal information in accordance with relevant privacy and health records legislation,” they add.
Do you use any Our Medical facilities? Have you received this email? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: Your pharmacist is more than a pharmacist
Clearly business is gaining a financial benefit with sharing customer personal details as compensation for difference between full payment and bulk billing payments.
They may be operating within the law but given the data breaches we’ve seen over recent times why would anyone want to trust a commercial organisation like this who, into the bargain, are going to share your data with all sorts of other unknown entities? Recipe for disaster!!
Simple solution. Go elsewhere. It’s time people voted with their feet, then maybe when the profits decline these corporations may start to respect their clients again.
Speaking from personal experience, I find that when object strongly to being told that “the system won’t allow it”, and demand to speak to someone that controls “the system” common sense prevails.(It’s also quite amusing hearing the responses to my comments that I find their initial response unacceptable, as most people usually meekly accept their fate).
Besides the outrageous attitude of the company in using our personal data as collateral to pay for essential medical services, the patient is at a gross disadvantage of not knowing what medical challenges and problems they may face in the future so signing up to an unknown. A further issue is whether the personal data they can sell or trade is limited solely to that data you disclose to them or given the free exchange of medical data amongst professionals, is it all data about you which they may collect? For example this mob might refer you to a specialist who ultimately sends you to a mental hospital for treatment. How much of this story and data does the GP group then own and sell about you? Is it only the info you disclosed to them or your whole mental health history and treatment by others?
This particular organisation first moved everyone to their app in order to check in to see a GP. Not to make an appointment – they don’t make appointments – but to turn up and check in to actually see a GP. Then they sent an ‘invitation’ to patients to join their ‘reward’ club. This meant that you could get say $20 off the cost of one of the ‘fee for services’ they offer such as physio or dietitian. That was free. Then they brought out an ‘enhanced’ version that entailed you paying a fee. Now this – effectively removing bulk-billing unless you join this rewards club. Note the rewards club does not allow you to make an appointment or even ‘jump the queue “of patients. A visit to my closest centre entails turning up early in the day with a cut lunch. There are generally only a couple of GPs on duty and a high volume of patients. Get a good seat because you will be there for a while.
This latest move is disgraceful. Effectively creating a two tier system – those prepared to have their data exposed to god knows who for god knows what, and those who are willing to pay handsomely for their privacy. It is disgusting and whilst within the law, we all support George Chapman in 1654 who published the play Revenge for Honour: “The LAW IS AN ASS”
Wondering why the software needs to track patients. What kick backs to these clinics get from other businesses? Sorry I’d walk away. There are other doctors and clinics.
My wife asked if the federal government were involved in this, like big brother wanting to know everything.
Hotdog in ACT is doing something similar, wanting your bank details etc due to debts from people skipping payment during the pandemic. Seeing a gp is $105 and virtually no bulk billing. Such is the state of our once good health system.
Avoid at all costs. There are other bulk billing medical clinics around and even if I had to pay other clinics I would. This chain of clinics now, cannot be trusted with very personal and sensitive data.
I wonder if 3rd party could include insurance companies like health insurance, travel insurance, life insurance etc.