Just a quick search on "selling medical records" brings up many, many articles and examples on the subject. Including selling/mining prescription data.:
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Medical and Public Health Law Site
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Selling Medical Records
In most situations, the selling of a private medical practice is little more than selling patients' medical records. While there may be costs allocated to goodwill, this is meaningless when the practice is sold to a physician previously unknown to the selling practitioner. Any premium over the net present value of the furnishings, real estate, or lease represents a sale of medical records.
Interestingly, there have been few legal actions against physicians who sell medical records. In many states, it is illegal to transfer medical information for nontherapeutic purposes without the patient's explicit permission. In these states, the law would seem to require that each patient be contacted for permission to transfer the records. If the permission is denied, the selling physician will have to retain the records. If the patient cannot be located, then the record might be transferred under seal to the buying physician, to be opened only if the patient contacts the physician in the future.
It is expected that HIV/AIDS will precipitate a reexamination of the selling of medical records. This will be especially threatening in states that make violations of patient confidentiality a criminal act. Even in states that allow the transfer of medical records as part of the sale of a practice, this transfer is limited to another physician, not a lay practice broker.
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Understanding the Lucrative Business of Selling Medical RecordsPrinter-friendly format By: BY GLORIA BUTLER BALDWIN
Buying and selling certain health information isn't new. Since the 1940s, health insuring organizations (HIOs) have bought prescription records from a variety of sources, including through the claims process by managed care organizations, pharmacy benefit mangers, and others, and then linked with physicians listed in the Physician Master File of the American Medical Association (AMA).
Pharmacy information, which includes physician and pharmacy identification, prescription fill and refill data, product name and quantity dispensed, authorized refills, cost, and payment and insurance information, is compiled by the HIOs and sold to pharmaceutical manufacturers for significant revenue. Approximately 2.9 billion prescriptions are filled annually by pharmacists.
In the June 29, 2006 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Robert Steinbrook addressed the lucrative business of buying physicians prescribing data and the growing rebellion of physicians against the companies using the information as marketing tools.
According to a 2005 Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Health annual report, operating revenue of $1.75 billion was derived from sales to the pharmaceutical industry. Forty-eight percent was from "sales force effectiveness offerings," which include "sales territory reports and prescription tracking reports." In 2005, the AMA received $44.5 million in revenue * about 16 percent of its total revenue * from the sale of database products.
Physicians are chomping at the bit because their personal prescribing data is open book, when patient records are, for the most part, protected under HIPAA.
To prevent losing license agreements with certain health information offices, the AMA issued its Best Practice Guidelines for pharmaceutical companies to follow when obtaining and using prescribing information to ensure its confidentiality and prevent its disclosure to other parties. The guidelines also say that using the data to pressure or coerce physicians to prescribe certain drugs is "absolutely an inappropriate use."
One pharmaceutical rep who talked candidly about how the data gathering really operates, was reluctant to provide his name, saying "it would be career suicide."
"It's all about marketing," said the source. "They say it's for research and to some degree it is. But mainly it's used for research in how to make more money. We get information about which doctors are prescribing what drugs, and for how much so we can see which ones we need to go push a harder. There's a ranking list of our best prescribing doctors. Pharmaceutical manufacturers even use those reports to decide how much to pay their sales representatives."
IMS Health uses the collected data from about 70 percent of all prescriptions filled in community pharmacies and projects nationally representative data.
State laws supersede the AMA guidelines. New Hampshire recently passed House Bill 1346, which criminalizes the collection and disclosure of information about the prescribing practices of physicians and other healthcare providers.
Verispan LLC joined IMS Health Inc., in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to protest the constitutionality of the New Hampshire law. IMS said the new law goes beyond patient privacy and has created a special privacy right for physicians at the expense of healthcare quality and patient safety.
The AMA agrees that information "critical to improving the quality, safety and efficacy of providing patient care through the application of evidence-based medical research," should be shared, but not for self-gain.
Other states are devising their own plans. The California Medical Association, in conjunction with IMS Health, is conducting pilot testing that will allow physicians who do not restrict access to their information to see their own comparative data and educational material. Pilot testing will be completed this year and may be available throughout the state in 2007. Similar programs could take hold in other states.
According to a recent article by Robert Musacchio of the AMA and Robert Hunkler of IMS Health, the rules of the new program "allow the industry to retain access to prescribing data for most purposes, but they require companies to police their own sales forces."
They warned that unless companies "comply in letter and spirit with the requirements," they "will sabotage the success of the program and pave the way for legislation that imposes stricter measures on the industry."
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Bill would let pharmacies sell medical records
Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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Pharmacies in California would be allowed to sell confidential patient prescription information to third-party marketing firms working for drug companies under a bill expected to be voted on Thursday by the state Senate.
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The legislation would allow pharmaceutical firms to send mailings directly to patients. Supporters of the proposal say the intent is to remind patients to take their medicine and order refills. But consumer privacy advocates are outraged.
"This bill would be a windfall for corporations seeking to track, buy and sell a patient's private medical records," said Zack Kaldveer, spokesman for the Consumer Federation of California. "This would represent a significant intrusion by pharmaceutical companies into the privacy of patients.
"By opening this Pandora's box, consumers could wind up receiving mailings designed to look as if they came from the pharmacy yet conflict with what their pharmacist or doctor has recommended. Such a scenario would be a threat to their health."
The California Medical Association opposes the legislation, contending that it could jeopardize patient safety and hurt doctor-patient relationships. The mailings are particularly problematic for patients with sensitive medical issues such as mental illnesses, says the association.
People receiving medication for a litany of illnesses, including cancer, diabetes, asthma, osteoporosis, depression, hypertension and heart disease, could receive the letters.
"The point is to tell people to take the drug as prescribed and to refill it," said Rocky Rushing, a spokesman for the author, Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello (Los Angeles County).
He said many people fail to follow medication directions.
Dr. Rupin Thakkar, a board member of the National Physicians Alliance, considers the proposed legislation a pharmaceutical ploy to gain access to important patient information.
"It's as if you were shopping in a supermarket and someone was following you and saying for everything you buy, 'You should try something different,' " said Thakkar, who practices in Edmonds, Wash.
"It's a horrible invasion of privacy - it amounts to marketing directly to patients in their homes. One's health care information absolutely needs to be private."
Last week, the Senate defeated the bill, SB1096, on a 17-17 vote, but Calderon amended it to allow patients to opt-out when they pick up their prescriptions.
"You pick up your meds and have the opportunity to opt out," said spokesman Rushing. "It's similar to waiving your right to consult with the pharmacist. We are trying to strike a balance. ... There was a lot of concern about people being forced into a program where they had no say-so."
But consumer groups say it's unfair to place the burden on patients to halt a marketing practice.
"We're concerned that people won't notice it or won't understand what it means," said Jerry Flanagan of Consumer Watchdog.
A primary backer of the bill is Adheris Inc, a subsidiary of a drug marketing company that was sued several years ago under its former name for privacy violations. Adheris is involved in a pending class-action lawsuit in San Diego involving the same issues in the Calderon bill.
California has one of the nation's strongest medical privacy laws. Under the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, direct mail marketing to patients by pharmaceutical firms is not permitted.
E-mail Elizabeth Fernandez at [log in to unmask]
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Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno
Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno
>>> Steven Whitaker 5/15/2009 11:43 AM >>>
Whether you want to believe it or not, it happens on a frequent basis. Peter's raindrops postings have quoted many, many articles on these in the past five years.
Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno
>>> [log in to unmask] 5/15/2009 7:50 AM >>>
"Look at the medical profession. It is very normal for a retiring
doctor or clinic to "sell" medical records. Happens all the time.
Your (and possibly my) medical records and charts now in the hands of
someone who probably wants to sell us something."
Although it is common for physicians/dentists to sell their practice
upon retirement, it is rare that the medical records or the patient
information is sold in the manner you imply.<snip>
Liz Allan, RHIA
San Jose, CA
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