Qlink and your privacy

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

This is pretty complicated, so please bear with me...

Any employees or family members insured through Tristar / HCA /Hendersonville Hospital have been forced into an insurance network called Q-Link.   Q-Link has approached primary care providers that are not owned by the hospital and demanded something that is very troubling.

In order to be a provider with the Q-link network, PCPs would have to provide them with private data on ALL of our patients, not just those in the Q-Link network.

This is a major violation of privacy of our patients.  The information Q-Link requires us to submit includes names and personal identifying information as well as all diagnosis codes for every visit.  

This is a major violation of privacy.  Q-link has arrangements with their enrollees that requires the submission of this data.  Anyone with another insurance provider has not consented to this release and if we were to submit this data, it would be a major violation of their privacy. While not a direct HIPAA violation due to clever legal phrasing, it’s certainly unethical.

We recently became aware that Q-Link can accept only the data on HCA members, filtering only the data they need.  We believed we had reached an agreement for contract purposes but were then  informed that the Q-Link Board denied this just three days later.  They once again are requiring ALL data from ALL patients in our practice again in order for their contract to be valid.

I would suggest people covered with Q-link express their concerns with HCA and the Q-link board.  I’ve only been able to come up with one name so far.  ( Dr. Randy Howard - Gastroenterologist ) Q-Link will not provide me the names of the rest of the board.

I’ve spoken with the other respectable physicians in Hendersonville and the response has been the same.  We have also submitted this to our malpractice carrier who believes this raises several red flags and is unethical behavior, never a good thing.

In the meantime, we’ll do our best to accommodate our patients and will provide discounts whenever possible as a professional courtesy.  We are just trying to do the right thing, and it’s getting harder every year to stand up for what is right.  

More information as it becomes available.

<< UPDATE: 23 October 2014>>

  I was told that Dr. Howard is no longer involved with the Qlink board.