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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
How private are your medical records? You'd think they'd be pretty damn private, considering Congress specifically passed a law regulating the disclosure of these sensitive records. Some states feel the same way, extending even greater privacy protections to things like prescription records.
[...] Seems pretty locked down, but as Leslie Francis and John Francis point out at the Oxford University Press blog, federal law enforcement agencies have undone both Congressional protections and state protections.
Utah's requirement for a warrant conflicts with the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which permits the DEA to issue administrative subpoenas for information relating to individuals suspected of violations of the CSA. According to a US Department of Justice report, administrative subpoenas may be issued by the agency without judicial oversight and without the showing of probable cause that would be required for a warrant.
When states provide more protections to residents than the federal government's willing to grant, it's often the state laws that lose, especially when controlled substances are involved. Such is the case here, at least so far. The DEA demanded the release of patient info/prescription records without a warrant, something forbidden by Utah law. The state objected to the DEA's records demand. The DEA responded by flexing its considerable federal muscle.
The DEA countered with the Supremacy Clause: valid federal laws are superior to conflicting state laws.
The court ended up agreeing with the DEA: patient info and prescription records aren't afforded additional privacy protections, no matter what HIPAA/state laws have to say about the matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @06:06AM (4 children)
Have you found any providers of anonymous medical treatment?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Tuesday September 12 2017, @06:20AM (3 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Arik on Tuesday September 12 2017, @07:16AM (2 children)
I certainly don't mean to imply they are willing to help you violate laws, Mexican or US. Particularly drug laws. I've never really run into this myself but I've spent considerable times in retirement communities near the border where lots of people go over for treatment, and I've definitely heard this from them. The docs on the south side of the border are no less worried about the DEA than those to the north. People that buy their drugs in Mexico typically have two scrips, in some cases they had the norte scrip before they moved to the area of course, but in others they have famously gone to Mexico, seen a good doctor, got a diagnosis and a plan of treatement - and then been informed they will have to find a norte doctor to concur and write a scrip before they're going to risk writing one that can be used in Mexico.
You might imagine this would make the whole process a bit of a pain in the ass for anyone that genuinely needs and wants scrips, and you'd be right. But the rest of us can save a lot of money and time down there, and honestly, the only reason the situation really seems burdensome to me is because I know people that really do need the drug therapies to sustain their lives, old people with really serious medical problems, and I see them as being the most inconvenienced by the situation, it causes them a lot more trouble than the pill-seekers it's mean to stymie and they're less able to cope with the setbacks.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by noneof_theabove on Tuesday September 12 2017, @01:48PM
You left out ONE BIG point.....
You have to have a passport to legally cross the border. [TTBOMK]
Growing up in the 1960/70 125 miles from the border was great.
Cheap sugar and other staples including limited [? 2 bottles / person] of liquor.
Even basic meds, some not needing a script, like general antibiotics.
No más hoy. [no more today]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 12 2017, @02:13PM
*sigh*
You left us with a great lead for our stories about Juan's Border Bar and Clinic - then you came back and added more pertinent data. I'm so disappointed. The first time I met Ethanol-Fueled was in Juan's. And, 'Zumi, too. Never saw Aristachus there, though. I heard he simply won't drink cheap Mexican beer or liquor, and Juan doesn't serve anything else. It is a bit unnerving when Juan comes back to the bar, lays his scalpel beside the cash register, and the blood just kinda pools up on the bar.