Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorInsurance companies are demanding that laboratories properly check on the identification of persons taking HIV tests, noting that fraudulent misrepresentation by patients could end up wrecking the industry.
This, however, is not finding favour with the Ministry of Health.
"It is certainly not required by law that persons be asked to show identification before an HIV test can be administered," explained director of the HIV/AIDS/STI programme at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Yitades Gebre. "We have to ensure that the privacy of persons are protected and we certainly do not want to start scaring patients away from doing tests."
Dr. Gebre said there were currently no discussions taking place in the Ministry regarding the possibility of making it mandatory for labs to ask for identifications, noting that "I do not see this happening in the foreseeable future either." Asked whether it wouldn't be in everybody's best interest to make it compulsory for persons to show identification before doing an HIV test, Dr. Gebre said "the greater good, I believe, is to protect the rights and privacy of individuals."
Mark Chisolm, marketing manager of Life of Jamaica (LOJ), called the Ministry of Health's stance "foolhardy," noting that insurance companies have "absolutely no choice" but to have persons be properly identified before a test is conducted.
"This should really not be an issue," he said. "No lab should be testing a person for HIV without requesting an identification. As insurance companies, we have to protect ourselves. We have to ensure that the person taking the test is the same person we could be signing up for an insurance policy. One has to understand that once we sign up a client to a policy, we are obligated to honour that agreement regardless of what happens later. If we have a loose system where persons can do whatever they want then we run the risk of destroying our own companies."
Mr. Chisolm said that LOJ has instructed all the labs it does business with to make sure persons taking the HIV test are properly identified. "The risks of not doing this are too great," he added. "This is one of the reasons why we deal with reputable labs - we have to ensure there is very little, if any, chance for error."
Sonia Lebert, chief underwriter for First Life Insurance agreed. "We must insist on asking for identification," she said. "We deal primarily with one lab here in Kingston and even our out-of-town clients are asked to come into Kingston to do their tests - there is no other way to do this."
Random checks by The Sunday Gleaner to several labs indicate that not everyone is asking for identification. "We are not required by law to do this," one woman explained. "Once you bring us a form from a doctor, you pay the fee of $1,000 and the test is conducted."
Asked whether there is not the danger of persons having others doing the test for them, she responded, "We have no control over that -- we can only hope that persons are honest. To tell you the truth, if people really want to defraud an insurance company all they would have to do is to give others their particulars and misrepresent the facts. In that scenario, you will find people with HIV getting life insurance policies for themselves which the companies have to honour. There is not really a fool-proof system regardless of what some would want to believe."
An insurance executive who requested anonymity agreed. "These things can happen," he said. "This is why we thoroughly investigate persons who die within two years after signing up life insurance policies. If we find that they were not truthful in their medical declarations then we are not obligated to pay the claims.
Dr. Derrick Aarons, a private practitioner from Ocho Rios, said he was undecided as to whether there should be regulations that make identifications a requirement for HIV testing. This, he said, was grounds for serious breaches of confidentiality.
