Editorial: Is health data plan akin to 'credit score'?

Data is the currency of our realm. Collecting it, managing it, understanding it. But as the data revolution continues, we need to have open eyes about its potential misuse as well as the benefits.

A service early in the development stages would compile data on the medical payment histories of individuals, with the intent of reselling that data to health care companies to help determine the likelihood that patients will pay their bills. The service, to be used only after care has been provided, would help medical organizations by giving them a tool to more precisely estimate how much of their receivables they will receive and to more efficiently resolve outstanding bills.

Healthcare Analytics, a health technology firm that has financial backing from Minneapolis-based Fair Isaac Corp., said it is still at least six months away from pilot-testing the service, which is tentatively named medFICO. The company, however, is wary of the implication that it might be a "credit score" for health care. Given the penchant for inaccuracies to creep into credit scores and the vital nature of health care access, avoiding the "credit score" motif is probably for the best.

The indigent are protected from being denied emergency medical treatment, but it is less clear how much leeway medical organizations have when it comes to non-emergency treatment. And although Healthcare Analytics said its tool would be used only for post-treatment purposes, the company has not outlined how it would prevent medical organizations from using the service as a pre-treatment screening tool.

Once collected, data tends to take on a life of its own. A database may be used initially for a limited and targeted purpose, but its use frequently expands over time, often to include applications previously unenvisioned. Credit scores, for example, are used not just by banks to determine whether to issue a credit card or to set the terms of a loan, but also by insurance companies to make decisions about rates and insurability and by some businesses as a screen for employment.

Healthcare Analytics emphasizes that the company is in the early stages of developing the program and that consumer advocates should not jump to conclusions. We agree, but we also recognize that the development stage is the best time to build in safeguards to protect consumers. Waiting until problems arise to retrofit a remedy could be much more painful than engaging consumer groups now to develop a program that has broad support.