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My employer has a self insured plan managed by an independent processor. Do they have my claims history?

I work for a major publicly-traded corporation. Their insurance plan is self-funded, and managed by CIGNA, who handles all the paperwork, network, payment, etc.... Does the employer have access to my individual claims history? My son has a disease which is causing significant payouts to the self-funded plan. I have not discussed his condition with any other employees, so the ONLY way they would know is through CIGNA. My concern is that, like most large companies, we are going through a round of layoffs. My job performance has always been excellent, so I wouldn't ordinarily be worried, but if upper management decides to (perhaps illegally) connect my name to a large expense (medical claims), I could be placed on the axe list. Needless to say, I don't trust the executives to have high ethical/legal standards. Is my claims history hidden from them by any laws CIGNA would enforce, such as HIPAA, ERISA, or privacy laws?

Public Comments

1. OH YEAH! HIPAA laws prohibit this information being passed on to the employer for any reason without your written consent. And it carries hefty fines and possible jail time too. EDIT:Your employer may get the info on claims paid, but it does not include who the services were provided to, which was your question. If they did release that identifying info to the employer without your consent, THAT would be a violation of HIPAA regulations and subject to fines, etc.
2. of course they have access to the information. hipaa does not apply here as the info usually does not have identifying information. every company gets a report of claims activity. ours does on a monthly basis from cigna.