Big pharmacies are distributing Americans’ private medical information to law enforcement agencies without a warrant, lawmakers said in a Tuesday letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Law enforcement agencies discreetly get a hold of thousands of Americans’ prescription records per year with no warrant, and often with no legal review, according to Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Democratic California Rep. Sara Jacobs.
The lawmakers are pushing HHS to increase its regulations to protect Americans’ data and require a warrant to obtain it.
“Through briefings with the major pharmacies, we learned that each year law enforcement agencies secretly obtain the prescription records of thousands of Americans without a warrant,” the lawmakers wrote. “In many cases, pharmacies are handing over sensitive medical records without review by a legal professional. Although pharmacies are legally permitted to tell their customers about government demands for their data, most don’t. As a result, many Americans’ prescription records have few meaningful privacy protections, and those protections vary widely depending on which pharmacy they use.”
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The lawmakers surveyed major pharmacies such as CVS Health, Walmart Stores, Inc., Walgreens Boots Alliance and Amazon Pharmacy, finding that there is no federal mandate requiring a warrant before they distribute records to law enforcement, according to the letter.
“Our pharmacy teams are trained how to appropriately respond to lawful requests from regulatory agencies and law enforcement,” a CVS spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We have suggested a warrant or judge-issued subpoena requirement be considered and we look forward to working cooperatively with Congress to strengthen patient privacy protections … We’ve committed to publishing transparency reports about third party record requests, including those from regulatory agencies and law enforcement. The first report will be published Q1 2024.”
Five out of eight pharmacies the lawmakers questioned stated they mandate law enforcement record solicitations be legally evaluated before responding. However, CVS, The Kroger Company and Rite Aid Corporation suggested that their personnel need to respond immediately.
“Those pharmacies will turn medical records over in response to a mere subpoena, which often do not have to be reviewed or signed by a judge prior to being issued,” the lawmakers added. “To justify this low standard of protection, several pharmacies cited language in HHS regulations that allow healthcare providers to disclose such records if it is required by law, pursuant to legal process, or pursuant to an administrative request.”
HHS has the ability to make it a necessity to obtain a warrant, the lawmakers wrote in the letter.
“Americans deserve to have their private medical information protected at the pharmacy counter and a full picture of pharmacies’ privacy practices, so they can make informed choices about where to get their prescriptions filled,” they wrote.
HHS, Jayapal, Jacobs, Walgreens, Amazon, Cigna, Optum Rx, Walmart, Kroger and Rite Aid did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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