To whom it may interest:
Subject: Health Information Privacy Alert - April Digest
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 13:01:05 -0400
From: Dennis Melamed blt2go@erols.com
Organization: Melamedia Editorial Services
To: "Hospital-Webmaster@hon.ch" Hospital-Webmaster@hon.ch
Sender: owner-hospital-webmaster@hon.ch
The unauthorized sharing of pharmacy prescription data with a data base firm for marketing use by a drug company have made them all targets of a lawsuit in Boston. (HIPA March 1998, p. 1) In a class action suit filed in late March, CVS, Elensys and Glaxo Wellcome were named as defendants in a case brought in Massachusetts Superior Court on behalf of a CVS Yarmouth, Mass., a CVS customer alleges the action by CVS in sharing prescription data was a "flagrant breach of patient/customer confidentiality." Attorneys in the case are not ruling out a full investigation of drug company marketing practices, including the use of toll-free numbers.
Possibly compounding pharmaceutical company worries are anecdotes swirling around state insurance and hospital administration circles of even less palatable marketing efforts allegedly deployed by the thousands of pharmaceutical sales people in the country. These include payoffs to interns in exchange for access to records and the use of "preceptorships," which are non-IRB supervised research by doctors and underwritten by drug companies.
Hospitals may face new privacy challenges when they outsource tasks that require access to patient records and contacting patients. The latest example: the Court of Appeals of Ohio ruled in March that patients had a cause of action in pursuing a breach of privacy case when a hospital hired a law firm to screen records and contact patients regarding the possibility of having their financial obligation for medical treatment paid by Medicaid's Supplemental Security Income.
The Montana AFL-CIO has charged that workers privacy is coming under assault as at least one employer has forced employees to sign release forms granting broad access to workers' medical files. The AFL-CIO was called in earlier this year by a lumber workers local when a company handed out authorizations to be signed by workers allowing full disclosure of all medical files in a workers compensation claim.
The American College of Physicians (ACP) issued updated ethics guidelines for physicians faced with dilemmas such as maintaining confidentiality of patient information and the complex issues raised by genetic testing. In its Ethics Manual issued in April, ACP observed that confidentiality "is increasingly difficult to maintain in this era of computerized record keeping and electronic data processing, faxing of patient information, third-party payment for medical services, and sharing of patient care among numerous medical professionals and institutions."
Eleven states have specific policies restricting access to workers compensation files by pre-employment screening agencies and employers, according to a nationwide survey conducted by Health Information Privacy Alert. A dozen states keep all workers compensation files confidential except to those with a direct interest in a compensation claim. Regardless of the written policy, most states have erected informal barriers to public access of workers compensation files, betting that those seeking files will not spend the time or money required to gain access, the HIPA survey found. Copies of the survey are free to subscribers and $35 for non-subscribers.
Health Information Privacy Alert is an independent monthly business newsletter.
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