Hey, you can trust the Government, right?
All of the big pharmacy chains in the US hand over sensitive medical records to law enforcement without a warrant—and some will do so without even running the requests by a legal professional, according to a congressional investigation.
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They include the seven largest pharmacy chains in the country: CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Cigna, Optum Rx, Walmart Stores, Inc., The Kroger Company, and Rite Aid Corporation. The lawmakers also spoke with Amazon Pharmacy.
All eight of the pharmacies said they do not require law enforcement to have a warrant prior to sharing private and sensitive medical records, which can include the prescription drugs a person used or uses and their medical conditions. Instead, all the pharmacies hand over such information with nothing more than a subpoena, which can be issued by government agencies and does not require review or approval by a judge.
This sure seems like a violation of HIPAA, not to mention that pesky Fourth Amendment.
(via)
6 comments:
Remember, it's not an illegal search when you invite them in. It's not a constitutional violation when the company hands your records over to the government. The fact that the government holds the power to cancel their pharmacy licenses, individually and corporately, has nothing to do with it. /sarc
They were subpoenaed, which isn't quite the same as just handing them out to anyone.
But those could be fought in court, if they had anyone else's interests in mind.
And if a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his @$$ when he hopped.
Agree with McC and Aesop both. And yes, it does violate HIPAA unless there is a declaration provided to the person...
HIPAA doesn't apply if there's a subpoena. As long as there is one the legal procedural process has been followed. The real problem is the automatic rubber stamp subpoena process that exists which essentially means if some badgemonkey fills out the
correct form they can be assured some evil blackrobed pirates will sign it REGARDLESS of any actual evidence...or lack of...presented to support the subpoena request. The entire process is corrupt and evil. The judicial system in America, like virtually every other government system has been suborned, perverted and corrupted and needs to be totally scrapped.
Never forget - they just renewed FISA!
The trouble with these subpoenas is that it doesn't afford the individual whose records are sought to contest it. These institutions don't really care about your HIPAA rights unless they can be held liable for disclosing them without notifying the individual in time for that person to contest the subpoena in court.
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