AIBU to ask for something to be removed from my medical records?

[DeepDarkSecrets]

I have name changed for this.

I have just had an email from a life insurance company - with whom I was going through the process of buying life insurance from. Because of an autoimmune disease that I have (IBD) I had to get the doctors to send them a copy of my medical records. So they had access to all of my medical records, not just the parts pertinent to my IBD.

The email I have had says that I have been refused life insurance because of something on my medical records. I couldn't think what this could possibly be so I rang the doctors to find out (as the underwriters wrote to tell my doctor I'd been refused). I've been refused because of a "drug overdose" when I was 16. I had no idea this was even on my medical records, otherwise I would have done something about it sooner. I don't know if I actually CAN have anything done about it.

Back story:

I grew up with an abusive step father. He abused me mentally, physically and sexually for the 9 years that he was married to my mother. Eventually my grandfather got involved because my mother was just turning a blind eye to it all. They got divorced when I was almost 16 years old. Almost immediately, my mother took up with another man and I was absolutely terrified it was all going to happen again. I waited until my sister (DD of abusive SF and my mum, who grew up in complete innocence) was at her dad's and my mother was at work and then I effectively staged an overdose. I emptied two or three bottles of pills into the outside bin and then left them lying on the worktop. I then phoned my friend and told her I've overdosed - I was a complete mess so she was easily persuaded that I had done so. She then got hold of my mother and I was rushed off to hospital to be force fed charcoal to get me to throw up. Once my mother (who had arrived to level a torrent of hate at me for being so selfish) had left the hospital, I told my friend and the nurses that I hadn't actually taken any pills at all, I was just trying to get my mother to see how traumatised I was by the new boyfriend. I figured that was the end of it but it's gone down on my medical records as an actual drug overdose.

Because of this, I now don't think I'm going to be able to get any life insurance at all. Is there any chance of me having this amended or deleted from my medical records, as it never actually happened, or are they going to refuse, thinking that I am lying about it not happening, just to get insurance? I know it wasn't a good thing to do anyway, a waste of resources etc but at the time, I was an emotional mess.

Is there anything I can do about this? I'm 37 years old and have never considered suicide but obviously the insurers think I'm a risk. I'm quite upset about this actually.

Sorry for thr long post but wanted to give all the facts!

Is it hard to
Get insurance then if you have mental health problems? Depression, anxiety etc?

People just seem happy to disclose things to NHS staff without considering the consequences. It is worse as a child, because others are disclosing your information to the NHS, and justifying it by claiming it is in your best interests, and you do not really have a say as to what is recorded.

BPHen if you're going private to prevent insurers having relevant medical details, you might as well save yourself the money and not pay the premiums: you're invalidating the insurance.

Think about it.

Most healthcare in the US is private. No state record of your medical needs. Yet insurance companies in the US have whole departments dedicated to investigating those private medical records in order to not pay out on claims.

You might have very well founded concerns about your medical record being used for things you don't approve of (and you may wish to opt out of the sale of your medical data, care.data, as well as the NHS Summary Care Records).

But in the case of insurance, the insurance company is demanding certain information as a condition of your contract with them, regardless who holds it. Private vs public is the wrong tree to bark up here.

OP I was in a similar situation a few years back when me and my dh were getting a mortgage. A few providers denied us the loan because of what was written in my medical notes. Eventually we did get a mortgage and it all worked out fine though.

I read this thread as I was hoping to see if there was a way of getting "attempted suicide" written out of GP notes. Mine too was not an actual case of attempted suicide but a cry for help like yours.

Good on you for staying strong and living your life. Best wishes xx

I can understand the frustration - there is a record on my GP notes (don't know if it's on the wider system) about the time my mother rang up demanding a home visit for me when I had flu one year and got abusive with the receptionist. I had no knowledge that she did this, I was over 18 and didn't live with her, and certainly didn't consent to her doing so but they dutifully recorded it and won't remove it, which caused difficulty when I wanted to change GP because they treated it as if I'd been the abusive one.

Actually, my reluctance isn't really insurance based, that would be the least of my worries. It is more the fact that the contents of your medical records can come back to bite you when you least expect it.

There was a poster on here a while ago who was refused IVF on 'welfare of child' grounds ostensibly due to her prior disclosure of mental health issues. It looked to me more like a personality clash between her and her GP, but of course the GP held all the cards.

Likewise, if you ever find yourself in a position where you need to sue for personal injury due clinical negligence, the first thing the opposing legal team will do is request your full medical records (you have to disclose them under the Civil Procedure Rules). Anything in there is fair game, if you've ever had a termination for example, or anything else 'sensutive' it will be bandied about to try to embarrass you into dropping the case.

Your records can also be court ordered in custody disputes, child protection matters, etc, etc...

Some mn'ers are very naive in their trust in the Big State as some omnibenevolent entity. It's a popular left wing view, but sadly very misguided IMO.

Work on having it annotated, rather than removed. You may be able to use a provision in the Data Protection Act to do this. Have a look at the ICO (Information Commissioner's office) website to see what is possible.

I also have IBD and struggled to get insurance. Aviva were the only ones willing to insure me but it's really expensive. I would definitely ring them and explain and see if they are willing to discuss it with you.

I've just checked in here and notice that a post I put on yesterday hasn't appeared so I thought it may bear summarising :

kali110 Having MH issues does not mean that a person will have difficulties getting insurance, just as having MH issues does not mean the person is a suicide risk.

As PPs have said, getting insured is a contract between you and the insurer. The insurer is looking to make profit from the fact that more people pay premiums than make claims - that applies to life assurance just as it does to car/home etc insurance. So that the insurer can decide if you are a risk that they are willing to take, they need to know certain things about you, like your age and your state of health. If your circumstances fit their criteria, they will enter into a contract with you (they might ask you to pay an extra premium in some circumstances).

The terms of the contract (the policy) set out when they will pay out on the contract - often, the contract will say that the policy won't pay out if death is due to suicide within X months - that's to prevent people taking out policies knowing that they are likely to die. That's the same as not paying out if you die of any health issue that you didn't tell them about. If you tell them and they accept the risk, then they will pay out (hence the extra premium in some circumstances, because they accepted the risk at a higher price).

The vast majority of claims are very straightforward. However, in some circumstances, the insurer will ask for more information. This is to protect their position, ie. make sure that they are not paying out on a risk they didn't know they were taking, but it's also to prevent fraud. It happens with car and home insurance claims as well (not your medical info, but they might check that your jewellery was properly valued, for example).

I've got to go to work now but hth, I'll check in again later. I agree with PPs that an upfront explanation would be better - maybe a note with your application outlining the basic facts. IME, medical information is treated very confidentially (I'm not commenting on the 'don't tell them anything' posts, just observing that IME, medical details are handled privately when business is being considered).