One More Note on Pharma Phishing

Don't worry, this one is staying on the radar (0.00 / 0)

I've been tracking the status of the proposed administrative rules.  

It appears the Health dep't is holding off on submitting them for consideration for the time being.  Looks like they are in a for a re-write and we will go over the revisions line-by-line when the new version is released.

Thanks for the Valley New Piece.


sláinte,
cl

-- Religion is like sodomy: both can be harmless when practiced between consenting adults but neither should be imposed upon children.

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by: Caoimhin Laochdha @ Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 22:03:44 PM UTC

January 15th -- Report due on Patient Monitoring program (0.00 / 0)

Next week, the Health Dep't is required to submit a report to the legislature on the Vermont Prescription Monitoring System, which is the database the state intends to keep on EVERY Vermonter who receives any scheduled substance.  Remember, "scheduled" includes everything from a sleeping pill to some medications taken for osteoporosis -- we are not just talking opioids folks.  This not monitoring "prescriptions" this is monitoring patients, plain and simple.

Its report should give an indication of whether they are taking seriously the comments regarding the proposed administrative rules.

The dep't of Health's current draft of proposed administrative rules for Patient Monitoring violate the legislation authorizing the program in almost too many ways to catalog. Just as bad, the Health Dep't has not incorporated the legislatively mandated privacy and security provisions the program requires.

Will the Health Dep't continue to brush off its legal obligations or will it finally give patients, the legislature and pharmacists/medical professionals a genuine assessment of what they have been doing?  

We will know in one week.

To the extent these two issues (police Pharma Phishing and Health Dep't Patient Monitoring) have not already been thrown together, expect them to be in the upcoming session. Several of the relevant laws, both state and federal, overlap and Vermont is grossly violating patient rights through the dep't of Public Safety.  Next it wants to take it up a notch if the dep't of Health gets its way and goes through with its Patient Monitoring program as currently devised.

Stay tuned.

sláinte,
cl

-- Religion is like sodomy: both can be harmless when practiced between consenting adults but neither should be imposed upon children.

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by: Caoimhin Laochdha @ Thu Jan 10, 2008 at 11:53:37 AM UTC

What are our options when the dep't of health violates the legislation? (3.00 / 1)

Can they be sued to force compliance?

Musician, Web Designer, Photographer

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by: JulieWaters @ Thu Jan 10, 2008 at 12:00:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Re: legal action -- Depends on the stage of rulemaking (0.00 / 0)

and it depends on whether the rules are adopted.  There is also the issue of how far the dep't of health wants to push this monster before pulling the plug.

The proposed Patient Monitoring administrative rules (regulations) fail to provide the specific provisions the legislature required, and the proposed rules expressly violate restrictions the legislature set out in the law.

Under these circumstances, it is the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules's (LCAR)  obligation to to not approve the rules when it performs its legislative review.

The likely scenario, if LCAR rejects the proposed rules, is that the dep't of health will abandon the current proposal and go back to the drawing board.

The key at this point is to see what the final proposal looks like (possibly as early as this month) in view of the public comments the dep't recived at the end of last year when the proposed rules were published for public review.

It is one of those things where there is a different remedy at each step so we have to deal with the regulations at each step in adoption process.  

sláinte,
cl

-- Religion is like sodomy: both can be harmless when practiced between consenting adults but neither should be imposed upon children.

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by: Caoimhin Laochdha @ Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 23:17:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lawyer up! (4.00 / 1)

Send your local pharmacy a letter. Get a signed receipt. Tell them that you are putting them on notice that you expect them to adhere to a strict interpretation of your HIPPA rights. Tell them that if your expectations are not met you will organize a massive class action lawsuit against them.

Might as well turn the system against itself!  

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

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by: RandomArrow @ Thu Jan 10, 2008 at 20:18:34 PM UTC

Ultimately, the pharmacists (0.00 / 0)

are the last line of defense. I'd rather be giving them legal and political support than threatening them. It is the state police and the health dep't that want to violate medical privacy rights and these two departments seem intent on abusing patient's rights and misusing their medical records.

My ire will be directed toward the legislature if they do not reign in these two (i.e., Patient Monitoring & Pharma Phishing) out-of-control programs.

sláinte,
cl

-- Religion is like sodomy: both can be harmless when practiced between consenting adults but neither should be imposed upon children.

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by: Caoimhin Laochdha @ Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 23:24:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Pharma Datbase Rules Hearing (0.00 / 0)

Here's the Times Argus take on the hearing -- frustrating reading, since none of the comments mention the State Police demands on pharmacists for wholesale data dumps.

NanuqFC
In a Time of Universal Deceit, Telling the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. -- George Orwell  

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by: NanuqFC @ Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 17:43:23 PM UTC