The Coalition for Patient Privacy and 25 of its member organizations have sent a letter to Congress urging it not pass legislation requiring electronic prescribing without including provisions to protect the privacy of prescription data, Government Health IT reports.
The Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection Act (S 2408), sponsored by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), would require physicians to use e-prescribing for Medicare patients or face a 10% cut in payments. The bill is pending in the Senate Finance Committee.
According to reports, the legislation might be included in the committee's forthcoming bill to alter physicians' Medicare reimbursement rates.
Letter Details
The letter said, "Mandating e-prescribing without privacy provisions endorses and encourages the current practices" of selling prescription information to pharmaceutical companies, researchers and others for data mining purposes.
Deborah Peel, head of the Coalition for Patient Privacy, said an e-prescribing bill would be an excellent opportunity to prohibit data mining.
The letter asks lawmakers to incorporate 11 privacy provisions into any e-prescribing legislation, including language that would:
- Allow physicians to continue writing paper prescriptions without being penalized;
- "Require that any prescription data transmitted via e-prescribing be used only for the express purpose of prescription filling and submitting the necessary codes to the insurer for payment";
- Require annual reports to patients listing everyone who accessed their data; and
- Mandate security breach notifications.
Organizations co-signing the letter include the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the National Association of Social Workers and the Gun Owners of America (Ferris,
Government Health IT, 5/13).
The
groups' letter is available online (.pdf).