Nelson looking to curb 'mining' of private medical information

August 26, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG - Senator Bill Nelson today unveiled legislation aimed at halting drugstore chains from using your personal medical information, without your consent, to help drug companies market their products - as allowed under the Bush administration's new medical privacy rule.

Under the administration's rule, a drug company would be able to pay a drugstore chain to identify customers taking a certain prescription and then have the druggist write them to encourage that they switch to the drug-maker's own brand.

"This loophole lets drug companies and pharmacies mine and secretly profit from your most private medical information," Nelson said today. "Instead of allowing further erosion of our privacy standards, we should be strengthening medical privacy protections."

Nelson announced he's drafted legislation intended to curb the exploitation of patients' medical records without consent during a series of town-hall meetings Monday in the Tampa Bay area. His announcement aligns him with other privacy advocates in Congress who have declared they'll also fight the administration over permitting the use of someone's medical records for certain forms of marketing.

Specifically, Nelson's bill would require that consumers' give explicit consent before pharmacies could cull health information for drug companies that pay them to market their products. The bill doesn't interfere with health-care providers' sharing information for patients' treatment.

It was under a 1996 health-insurance law that Congress was supposed to come up with medical privacy regulations by 1999 - or cede the responsibility to the president. Congress was unable to reach a consensus, so the Clinton administration proposed a rule to strengthen patient privacy in its final weeks in office. The Bush administration put a hold on the rule for a year-and-a-half while devising its own 443-page set of regulations, which it unveiled three weeks ago. The Bush administration rule - which takes effect next April - allows pharmacies to market on behalf of drug companies without disclosure to consumers; and, it eliminates consumers' ability to "opt out" or stop unsolicited advertisements.

The rule is seen by privacy advocates as part of disturbing trend by regulators and lawmakers to allow businesses to sell or use information about anyone who doesn't specifically object. Last month, for example, the Federal Communications Commission issued new consumer-protection rules that critics say will allow telephone companies to be able to sell customer records with few obstacles.

Last year, Nelson introduced a bill to keep insurance companies, banks and other financial institutions from sharing health-related and financial information about consumers without their explicit consent. But the Senate so far has refused to consider it.

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