Massachusetts Medical Society Testifies on Disaster Preparedness and Data Mining Before the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing

Urges greater attention to and more liability protection for better disaster preparedness and supports banning the sharing of prescription information for commercial purposes

March 26, 2009

Contact: Richard P. Gulla
rgulla@mms.org
(781) 434-7101
pager: (877) 820-9023

Waltham/Boston – March 26, 2009 – The Massachusetts Medical Society today testified before the legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, presenting its support of what it considers two critical bills, one related to improving the Commonwealth’s disaster preparedness, the other to banning the practice of “data mining,” or the sharing of prescription information by insurers and pharmacies with pharmaceutical companies or other parties aimed at promoting the marketing of pharmaceuticals.

The two issues are regarded by the medical community as critical areas in public health and patient confidentiality.

Testimony on Disaster Preparedness

Paul Biddinger, M.D., chairman of the Medical Society’s Committee on Preparedness, Director of Pre-Hospital Care and Disaster Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Associate Director of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Public Health Preparedness, testified on behalf of the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians, offering support of House Bill 108 and Senate Bill 18, An Act Relative to Pandemic and Disaster Preparation and Response in the Commonwealth.  

In his testimony, Dr. Biddinger said that we are beyond our capacity in our emergency care system and that the state needs substantial and immediate increases in acute care medical space, supplies and staff, as well as added protection for health care workers to eliminate the reluctance of volunteers to assist in disasters because of the risks of liability.

“Every day, as a practicing emergency physician,” Dr. Biddinger testified,  “I see examples of how our system is stretched beyond its limits….Patients coming to the ED with acute illness and pain commonly wait for hours, crowded in the waiting rooms because there are insufficient beds and hallway spaces to host them….Even after being seen in the ED and found to need admission to the hospital, patients often wait for many more hours, and occasionally even days, in the ED because the hospital lacks the inpatient capacity to receive them. These examples are not the exception; they are the norm in our emergency care system….Despite the substantial, remarkable, and wonderful work of a large number of emergency planners, emergency responders, and clinicians throughout Massachusetts in recent years, the reality is that the health care system is simply not big enough to receive a large influx of disaster victims in its current state.”  

“The Medical Society and the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians strongly support House Bill 108 and Senate Bill 18 as an appropriate vehicle to enhance our state’s preparedness and address some of these challenges,” said Dr. Biddinger.

He cited the threat of liability as one of the biggest obstacles the Medical Society has faced in trying to recruit health care providers to enroll in its surge staffing program, the Massachusetts System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (MSAR).  “These bills,” he said, “provide essential strong liability protections for health care providers who volunteer or are called upon to assist in the event of a pandemic or other disaster situation. I cannot overemphasize how critically important such liability protections will be in a state of emergency. In disaster circumstances, concerns about liability should be a providers’ last concern as they put their lives on the line to provide the best care possible with whatever resources they have.”

Dr. Biddinger noted that the bills do not call for appropriations, but rather provide for a Department of Public Health review of resources and funding with subsequent recommendations for adequate support and maintenance of state and local preparedness levels.  

“Data Mining”

In written testimony, the Medical Society offered its support of House Bill 110, an Act to Prevent the Sharing of Prescription Data, legislation that would ban the practice of “data mining” – the sharing of prescription information by insurers and pharmacies with pharmaceutical companies or other parties aimed at promoting the marketing of pharmaceuticals. The Society maintains that prescriber- and patient-specific data should be confidential and not be shared with any individual, group or corporation whose motive is not solely the improvement of health care delivery. 

The Society said it also supports the similar intent of House Bill 109, “An Act Prohibiting the Use of Health Data for Marketing Purposes,” Senate Bill 17, “An Act Relative to Data Mining,” and Senate Bill 19, “An Act Protecting the Confidentiality of Patient Prescription Records.”

The intent of all the bills is to prevent the sale or transfer of data regarding prescribing practices for commercial purposes.

The Medical Society said that pharmaceutical companies now purchase the prescribing records of physicians and other health care professionals without the consent of the prescriber or the patient, using this information for marketing aimed at specific prescribers to promote their increased use of particular brand-name pharmaceuticals.

The Society noted that legislation banning this practice has already been enacted in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and similar legislation is under consideration in many other states.
Noting that access to data for the review of fraud or billing errors would not be affected by this legislation, the Society said “We strongly support the privacy of prescription data both for the protection of patients who might be identified through cross-referencing of databases, and for the protection of physicians from aggressive sales and marketing tactics. 

Complete testimony of the Medical Society is available at www.massmed.org/testimony.

The Massachusetts Medical Society, with more than 21,000 physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the patients and physicians of Massachusetts. The Society publishes the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading global medical journal and web site, and Journal Watch alerts and newsletters covering 13 specialties. The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education for health care professionals throughout Massachusetts, conducting a variety of medical education programs for physicians and health care professionals. Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. For more information please visit www.massmed.org, www.nejm.org, or www.jwatch.org.