CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens hand out medical records to cops without warrants::Lawmakers want HHS to revise health privacy law to require warrants.
I’m not American, but doesn’t HIPAA cover this kind of thing?
We urge HHS to consider further strengthening its HIPAA regulations to more closely align them with Americans’ reasonable expectations of privacy and Constitutional principles
“We urge HHS to consider further strengthening its HIPAA regulations to more closely align them with Americans’ reasonable expectations of privacy and Constitutional principles”
Guess not
JFC
ಥ_ಥ
The P in HIPAA is for Portability, not Privacy, and the S is for security.
But there’s no … Ohhhh
I wonder what would happen if they were asked for the rest of their business records without a warrant. How fast would their tune change?
Every single time I hear a story like this I always say the same thing. We need a Right to Privacy added to the constitution.
Full agreement. The implied right to privacy was necessary for modern society and it didn’t go far enough. Now it’s basically dead.
Maybe the public should start flooding CVS/Rite-Aid/Walgreens with documents requests, requesting the medical records of known officers and politicians.
Either they stop doing it due to public outrage.
They cant do it due to what is a essentially analog DDS
or politicians get outraged and step up immediately to stop it to protect their secrets.
This is bad, but around where I live, most of these pharmacies are helmed by teens just old enough to work there. I’d imagine many younger people in these positions would just do what the cops are asking: Cuz they aren’t paid to think, insufficient training, they just wanna get the day over. They deal enough with crazy customers as it is, let alone the hastle from cops. And if their policy of just let the shoplifters walk, why would it be different for cops?
Don’t you need a degree to work at a pharmacy?
In Europe you do
Often, there will only be one pharmacist and everyone else will be pharma techs. I think it depends on your state what education the techs need to have. But there are definitely just certification programs (less than a year long) rather than full blown degrees for it.
Funny how little the law people know the law. Shame on these companies. But they do have big pockets.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
Lawmakers noted the pharmacies’ policies for releasing medical records in a letter dated Tuesday to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra.
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 rest of the pharmacies—Amazon, Cigna, Optum Rx, Walmart, and Walgreens Boots Alliance—at least require that law enforcement requests be reviewed by legal professionals before pharmacists respond.
“We urge HHS to consider further strengthening its HIPAA regulations to more closely align them with Americans’ reasonable expectations of privacy and Constitutional principles,” the three lawmakers wrote.
“Last year, CVS Health, the largest pharmacy in the nation by total prescription revenue, only received a single-digit number of such consumer requests,” the lawmakers noted.
The original article contains 714 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
