The US Supreme Court is slated to hear a case that could put an electronic silence on the use of some pharmacy data to target physicians based on their identifiable prescription records. Data mining firms and their drug company clients reportedly use the information for marketing programmes. These firms are challenging a Vermont law limiting use of doctors' prescription records for targeted marketing programs by drug companies.
Currently, three US states - Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire - have enacted laws restricting marketing to doctors based on pharmacies' prescription data that identifies physicians.
Passed in 2007, the Vermont law provides physicians the right to consent before their prescription information can be sold or used for marketing purpose. The law has been challenged by several data collection firms, including IMS Health and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. A federal court had upheld the law, but it was overturned late last year by an appellate court.
Now, the Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments in the case William Sorrell, attorney general of Vermont vs. IMS Health Inc et al. on whether Vermont's prescription data confidentiality law violates the First Amendment's free speech protection.
Although the pharmacy data in question doesn't identify patients whose information is protected under HIPAA, the debated data does identify physicians. This is seen to allow drug companies who acquire the information from data collection companies to analyse the prescription writing trends and histories of doctors in an attempt to develop marketing strategies that target certain doctors.
These marketing activities can include identifying trends among doctors who tend to prescribe certain popular prescription drugs from certain makers, as well as doctors who appear to have changed their preferences of specific name brand medications to generics.
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