This is just a question of curiosity. How and where does the FAA go to see your medical records if they want to? Case in point, I have two different doctors that work for two different hospital organizations managing a health issue I have. Both are neurologists with their own specialties and work well with each other but lots of times when I go for blood work or tests for one doctor the other doesn't see the results since they are within two different networks. If two doctors of the same patient can't see each others stuff then how does the FAA even know where to go look? To be clear, I am not trying to hide anything or even asking for any specific reason. I am certainly not asking to try to find loop holes or suggesting that people be dishonest on their medical. This is just more of a general curiosity question since I see lots of posts on here from people asking about old diagnoses or medications they had taken decades ago. How would the FAA even find about those if you were in an accident. How would they even know what health insurance network or what provider to go ask from years ago?
Where does the FAA find your medical info from?
- Thread starter kmacht
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Simple, they ask you. If you fail to provide, they will revoke your medical for failure to respond.
If they suspect you are not being forthright, they can ask the Dr or insurance company directly, who may or may not provide them.
And of course, if they think you are being evasive, and they want them bad enough, they can make a referral and get a subpoena.
They really only need to know that they might exist and you are not providing them to make your cert go away.
You are guilty and must prove your innocence in the FAA world.
If they suspect you are not being forthright, they can ask the Dr or insurance company directly, who may or may not provide them.
And of course, if they think you are being evasive, and they want them bad enough, they can make a referral and get a subpoena.
They really only need to know that they might exist and you are not providing them to make your cert go away.
You are guilty and must prove your innocence in the FAA world.
Where did you learn that sentence structure AT?
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There is no button the FAA can press to get your past diagnoses and medical records. Every couple of years they go on a fishing expedition and crossmatch a government database with the medicals. This happened with the SSI-Disability DB 10+ years ago and with the VA disability DB more recently. Creates great excitement here anytime it happens.
Country Flier
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For prescriptions: look up what the PMP database is...goes back many, many years.
For scheduled drugs that is true. For other drugs, not so. However, through your medical records search consent the FAA can access insurance records which would record all drug prescriptions paid for, in whole or in part, by your insurance plan. Non-scheduled drugs not paid for by insurance would be a bit tougher for the FAA to access unless they had cause to do a deep dive and access the records of the pharmacies used for your insurance prescriptions. If a non-scheduled drug Rx was filled by a non chain pharmacy and you self paid it would be unlikely to be discovered unless they wanted to devote a lot of time and cast a bunch of lines trying to catch anything. They would have to have one heck of a reason to go that far.
Jeff Oslick
Final Approach
So, this gets interesting when we're dealing with a prescription given to a minor. The insurance is their parent's, not their own. Are you really explicitly signing access to your parent's insurance company's database when you sign the form? This seems like it could be challenged in court by the parents.
Why? Is a preposition a bad thing to end a sentence with?Where did you learn that sentence structure AT?
That wasn't the FAA's fishing expedition. That was a guy looking for VA disability fraud by finding people allegedly who were disabled that were working as pilots. Of course, the FAA has never felt it was necessary to comply with federal law with regards to things like the Privacy Act. They continue to violate it every day.
'Operation safe pilot' in 2003 was done by the FAA, not SSA.
In the current sweep, the veterans/pilots are receiving the letter of investigation from the FAA, not the VA inspector general.
These are definitely FAA investigations.
As to the privacy act thing. Since they got slapped down on the records check, they have crossed their I's and dotted their T's by including language in the medical application that forces you to consent to such a search. That was a technicality Stan managed to exploit back in 2002 but the buerocrats have fixed that since.
Again, those are government databases the FAA has access to (+ controlled substance scripts). And even those checks were done in a rather pedestrian post hoc way using spreadsheets and floppy discs. There is no button someone can push at the FAA to pull the note on that visit to a clinical psychologist in 1996 after your favorite aunt died. If you report it, they know about it. If you don't, they don't.
They're still violating the privacy act in divulging pilot information to the public without allowing the pilots to opt out.
Don’t do it, it’s a felony.
DesertNomad
Pattern Altitude
Just report it. I reported a visit to a doctor in Iran about 10 years ago (when it was within the 3-year window). There is honestly no way the FAA would ever know that I went to the ER there (food poisoning), but I reported it. Obviously I paid cash as US insurance does not work in Iran (nor do US credit cards for that matter). My AME simply asked what I was doing in Iran (tourist) and that it sounded interesting.
kell490
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The day will be here soon enough when medical records are all easy to get. I'm surprised the FAA doesn't require the AME to pull electronic medical records, and current prescription drugs. I know when I see a doctor now days they pull all my scripts from local drug stores even ones I don't even take anymore. They ask me if I'm still taking those some I might only use once or twice still refills. Another thing I noticed was my primary care doctor he seemed to have records on my family history the conditions my father had who passed in the 1990's. I never told them they got the records somehow.