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DEA Wants Access To Medical Records Without Warrant (thedailybeast.com)
mi writes from a report via The Daily Beast: Unlike in cases of commercially-held data, where the Third Party doctrine allows police warrantless access, prescription drug monitoring databases are maintained by state-governments. The difference is lost to the Obama Administration, which argues that "since the records have already been submitted to a third party (a state's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program) that patients no longer enjoy an expectation of privacy." The DEA has claimed for years that under federal law it has the authority to access the states' prescription drug databases using only an "administrative subpoena." These are unilaterally issued orders that do not require a showing of probable cause before a court, like what's required to obtain a warrant. Some states, like Oregon, fight it; some, like Wisconsin, do not. "The federal government is eager to see all these databases linked," reports The Daily Beast. "The Department of Justice has developed a software platform to facilitate sharing among all state PDMPs. So far 32 states already share their PDMP data through a National Association of Boards of Pharmacy program. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), which passed Congress in March, calls for expanding sharing of PDMP data."
... try not be so arrogant
Rhino Horns is not an essential ingredient in the Chinese medicine
The effect of rhino horns is equivalent to that of Tylenol
HIPAA was written specifically to ensure that medical records are not passed around without the patient's consent.
Based on my conversations with lawyers, I would say that the HIPAA laws were written specifically to ensure that hospitals could disclose medical records to law enforcement without incurring any liability.
When politicians want to do something particularly outrageous, they use Orwellian language. They call it the "Privacy Rule" because it takes away your privacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Covered entities may disclose protected health information to law enforcement officials for law enforcement purposes as required by law (including court orders, court-ordered warrants, subpoenas) and administrative requests; or to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person.
If you want something to be private and confidential, don't let it go in your medical record.
A lawyer once told me that a medical record is a "public document." It's accessable to everyone with a "need to know," and that includes the janitor who mops up your room and is concerned about infections.