Third Party Access to Drug Prescription Database (H 7867)

Just last year, the General Assembly passed legislation allowing law enforcement agencies limited access to state prescription drug monitoring database without a warrant. This year, the General Assembly considered yet another exemption to the confidentiality of this database in the form of legislation allowing health insurers, workers’ compensation insurers and HMOs, among others, to access private prescription information. In April, the ACLU testified that this information should not become a general warehouse available to more and more third parties for additional uses; it is deeply intimate medical information that should be kept private to the maximum extent possible. The committee did not vote on the bill, but its mere existence underscores a pattern of willingness on behalf of the state to release your private medical information to anyone who might want it.