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Data-collection firms sue Maine, Vermont over physicians' right to privacy in prescribing habits.From: Dean Huffman . (dean@thehuffpeople.net)Tue Sep 25 10:35:52 2007
.. Data-collection firms sue Maine, Vermont over physicians' right to privacy in prescribing habits. AMNews (10/1, O'Reilly) reports, "After landing a first-round federal court victory against a 2006 New Hampshire prescriber privacy law, data-gathering firms are targeting similar laws set to take effect next year in Maine and Vermont." Lawmakers in those states "crafted legislation allowing physicians and other prescribers to choose whether drugmakers can access their prescription data." In Maine, physicians would have to opt out if they do not want to participate, while physicians in Vermont would have to opt in to participate. "But [some] prescription-data-collection firms...filed federal lawsuits in late August challenging [those] laws." The lawsuit contends that those laws "violate the U.S. Constitution's First and 14th Amendments as well as the Commerce Clause." In the New Hampshire case, a U.S. district court "ruled...that the state's prescriber privacy law infringes on constitutionally protected commercial speech rights. The court also concluded that physicians do not have a privacy right in their prescribing habits." The data-collection firms are hoping for a similar outcome in both Maine and Vermont. Before New Hampshire enacted its law, "the AMA announced its Physician Data Restriction Program," which helps "physicians...keep their prescribing information out of the hands of drug reps and their direct supervisors." While "[t]he AMA is concerned that restricting prescription data sharing could impede medical research, drug recalls and clinical trials," the association "has no plans to file briefs in the litigation in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont."
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