Are private health insurance companies allowed to offer their customers health programs without being asked if they develop diabetes? Debeka and the Rhineland-Palatinate data protection officer are currently arguing about this in court.
Does “exaggerated data protection” prevent private health insurers from providing their customers with meaningful health-related services? Thomas Brahm, head of Germany’s largest private health insurer Debeka, believes so. “If I have the opportunity to pass on direct benefits to the insured, then I must be allowed to do so,” says Brahm. Because the data protection officer of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Dieter Kugelmann, sees things differently, his office and Debeka, who lives in Koblenz, are currently arguing in court.