Testimony in Support of Senate Bill 530, An Act
Protecting the Confidentiality of Patient Prescription Records And
Senate Bill 1858, An Act Prohibiting the Use of
Prescriber-Identifiable Data for Marketing Purposes
Before the Joint Committee on Health Care
Financing
The Massachusetts Medical Society wishes to be recorded in
support of Senate Bills 530 and 1858, 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 intent of these bills is to prevent the sale or transfer of
data regarding prescribing practices for commercial purposes.
Today, pharmaceutical companies purchase the prescribing records of
physicians and other health care professionals without the consent
of the prescriber or the patient. This data is then used to
target marketing aimed at specific prescribers in order to promote
their increased use of particular brand-name pharmaceuticals.
Legislation aimed at banning this practice has already been
enacted in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Similar
legislation is under consideration in many other
states. The New Hampshire legislation, which had been
the subject of extensive litigation, was upheld by the U. S. Court
of Appeals (1st Circuit) in the case of IMS Health Inc. v. Ayotte,
citing the state's legitimate interest in containing the cost of
prescription drugs.
Prescriber- and patient-specific data should be
confidential! The Massachusetts Medical Society strongly
believes that prescribing data should not be shared with any
individual, group or corporation whose motive is not solely the
improvement of health care delivery. The Society strongly
supports 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. Exceptions to complete
confidentiality should be limited to those necessary to allow the
legitimate review of quality of care issues, and to process the
claims for insurance purposes. Access to data for review of
fraud or billing errors would not be affected by this
legislation.
We urge the Committee to report out this legislation
favorably.
