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Civil Case Uses Fitbit Data To Disprove Insurance Fraud

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-the-watch-saw dept.

Lucas123 writes In what could presage an era of data from wearables being used in civil and criminal litigation cases, a Canadian attorney is using data collected by a Fitbit activity tracking wrist band to prove his client is not scamming an insurance company. The defendant's attorney normalized the data using an analytics platform that compares activity data with other wearables, offering a way to benchmark his client's health against a larger group of wearable owners. Legal and privacy experts say it's only a matter of time before wearable data will be used in criminal cases, as well, and the vendors will have little choice but to hand it over. "I do think that's coming down the pike. It's just a matter of time," said Neda Shakoori, an eDiscovery expert with the law firm of McManis Faulkner. Health privacy laws, such as HIPAA, don't cover wearables and those companies can be subpoenaed — just as Google and Microsoft have been for years.

2 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. If you think about it...it goes beyond wearables. by technomom · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Even if medical privacy laws did cover data recorded by a Fitbit band, it wouldn't matter, Reitman said, because there's an exception to HIPAA for law enforcement queries, national security and many other legal requests." To me, this sound like even X-rays, EKG results, MRI or CAT scan results or even just doctor's notes could be at risk. So, if an insurance company thinks you are lying about your disability claim, they could ask law enforcement to grab up the X-ray of that broken ankle you suffered playing in the beer softball league. You don't need a wearable for any of that.

  2. Re:If you think about it...it goes beyond wearable by sribe · · Score: 4, Informative

    So, if an insurance company thinks you are lying about your disability claim, they could ask law enforcement to grab up the X-ray of that broken ankle you suffered playing in the beer softball league.

    Absolutely. Although they probably would NOT go for criminal charges, they would just sue for damages in civil court, in which case they could absolutely subpoena your medical records. Actually, it probably wouldn't even get that far, because they'd want the medical records BEFORE paying the claim, and if you didn't provide them, you wouldn't collect.

    So, as suspect and hit at, Lucas123 seems to be completely confused about how HIPAA applies when there's a legal dispute over an insurance claim. Seriously, what numbskull thinks you can file an insurance claim and then claim medical privacy in order to avoid handing over data necessary to evaluate your claim???