Iām excited to share my first independent research preprint exploring how health insurer privacy policies may shape patient agency for people navigating healthcare systems.
The study analyzes ten publicly available privacy documents from five major Georgia health insurers using readability analysis and AI-assisted qualitative coding to examine data sharing, privacy rights, and consent mechanics.
Some key findings include:
- All documents exceeded recommended readability levels for patient-facing materials.
- Broader data collection and sharing practices often appeared in the most difficult documents to read.
- Many documented privacy rights required multiple procedural steps or had no documented opt-out mechanism.
š Preprint: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/7hd4m_v1
š Interactive visualizations and project page:
https://victoriamccray.github.io/research/insurance-privacy/
Iām now expanding this work to compare policies across additional states and, ultimately, validate these findings through community participatory research with people living with chronic illnesses.
If you work in AI ethics, public health, digital health, or health policy, Iād love your feedback on the methods, framing, or related literature.