I’m worried my doctor will report I vape to my health insurance
I quit vaping nicotine for several months but picked it back up about a month ago due to some stress. A few days ago I had an appointment with my psychiatrist. During intake with the medical assistant, she asked if I had started smoking. I initially said no, but then she said I “had to tell her if I do” so I felt pressured and told her I had started vaping. She asked how often, I said every day. I then went into see the physician and it wasn’t brought up again.
With a previous doctor in the past I had been honest about vaping and expressed my want to quit. Later on I read the visit summary on the online health portal and one of my diagnoses was nicotine dependence, I believe it had an ICD 10 code tagged onto it as well. This was a couple years ago.
Earlier this year I got health insurance with my employer (I was on my parents’ plan previous to that). At the time of signing up I wasn’t vaping or using nicotine products, so I answered no to that question when I signed up, so I am using the non-nicotine-user discount.
I’m worried that my psychiatrist who I just saw will diagnose me with a nicotine use/dependence disorder since I mentioned my use to the medical assistant (but didn’t actually discuss it with the psych), and if they report my diagnoses to insurance, they will take away my discount/kick me off the plan/punish me with other consequences I’m not aware of. Is there a possibility of this happening or am I just worried over nothing? The progress notes haven’t been posted yet so I can’t confirm my diagnoses from this visit.
TLDR: Was honest about my recent nicotine use at my doctor’s visit, worried my insurance will find out and take away the discount I’m using for being nicotine free (which I was a the time of signing up for the insurance plan).