HD Australia

Fine print hides risk of genetic test offer
Feb 15, 2010 12:15am


InsurerNIB begins offering its customers cut-price personalised genetic tests- which could expose them to higher premiums or even leave them unableto get life insurance or insurance payouts.

INSURER NIB hasbegun offering its customers cut-price personalised genetic tests -which could expose them to higher premiums or even leave them unable toget life insurance or insurance payouts.
But the company says it has no ulterior motive and only wants to help its members manage their health.
Inan Australian first, the company recently sent a selected group ofhealth insurance customers a letter inviting them to take a DNA test toassess their genetic risk of getting preventable illnesses such asdiabetes, heart attacks and some cancers.
However, experts havewarned that taking up the company's offer could lead to serious privacyand financial risks - which the company admits to only in tiny fineprint at the end of the letter.
The company has arranged a half-price deal with US company Navigenics for a full genetic assay that usually costs $1000.
TheAge believes that a select group of 5000 customers received the offer,as the company is testing the concept, but if it is successful it maybe expanded.
In the letter, NIB chief executive officer MarkFitzgibbon revealed he had had such a test himself. "I found it to beaninvaluable experience and believe it could be something that youwould be interested in too," he said.
But Sydney academicKristine Barlow-Stewart, a key government adviser on geneticstechnology, said the move wasconcerning. "It certainly raised red flagsfor me," she said.
Once someone has taken a genetic test they canbe forced to reveal the results in order to obtain life insurance,incomeprotection or mortgage insurance and even some superannuationfunds that include life insurance.
Insurers can then use theinformation to increase premiums. If a customer concealed the fact theyhad the test, theinsurer may refuse to pay out the policy.
AssociateProfessor Barlow-Stewart is director of the Centre for GeneticsEducation at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, and sits on thefederal government's Human Genetics Advisory Committee. She has beenresearching cases of "genetic discrimination", in which healthy peoplehave been denied insurance cover due to the content of their DNA.
Inone study she found 48 cases of genetic discrimination in Australia, 46of which werepeople reporting adverse treatment by insurance companiesfollowing a genetic test result.
While she declined to speculatewhether NIB might have an ulterior motive, she said the fact that NIBalso offered life insurance meant questions should be asked aboutprivacy and the impact on the customer.
Life insurance contractscan vary depending on the insurer's assessment of the risk they takeon. People considered an "additional risk" may be hit with higherpremiums, shorter period of cover, or not be covered at all if death iscaused by particular medical conditions.
Under the official"Genetic Testing Policy" of the Investment and Financial ServicesAssociation of Australia, life insurance companies can demand that aprospective customer hand over the results of any genetic test theyhave had done.
"Life insurance is a contract of mutual goodfaith, but a genetic test means the balance has been tipped [in favourof theinsurer]," Professor Barlow-Stewart said. "How is thatinformation being interpreted? How meaningful is it anyway? Are theygoing to use it to change the premiums? These are fair questions andthey need to be asked."
Health insurance companies can also getaccess to genetic test results if they are shown to a doctor and go ona person'smedical record - although in Australia the companies cannotset premiums according to individual risk factors.
A spokesman for NIB said the genetic test results would remain strictly confidential between Navigenics and the customer.
"In no way can we identify if a policy holder has accepted this offer," he said.
Hesaid customers were warned of the implications in fine print on theletter saying "you may be required to disclosegenetic test results,including any underlying health risks and conditions which the testsreveal, to life insurance orsuperannuation providers".
The spokesman said the company's commercial objective was to help policy members identify and manage disease.

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