Court case puts patient privacy in peril

What happens to physician-patient confidentiality when any government agency can obtain a patient’s prescription records without a warrant? A case before a state supreme court threatens to keep these indiscriminant lines of investigation wide open. Lewis v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, a case before the Supreme Court of the State of California, calls into question whether or not the California Medical Board infringed upon patients’ constitutional right to privacy when it obtained prescription data without a showing of good cause. The board did so through the California Department of Justice (DOJ) database, which allows broad and indiscriminate disclosures to state, local and federal agencies—including law enforcement—and fails to adequately protect patient privacy. Ignoring privacy laws In this case, the Medical Board acquired three years of prescribing history of all of a single physician’s patients. In doing this, the Medical Board circumvented patients’ right of privacy guaranteed by the California constitution. This right protects sensitive medical information from disclosure without probable cause or judicial review. Yet the court of appeals concluded that government agencies did not violate patient privacy and that no further limitations should be established when it comes to data mining patient prescription records. The Litigation Center of the AMA and State Medical Societies filed an amicus brief in the interest of “ensuring that presc...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news