By Steve
Ahlquist in Rhode Island’s Future
“Requiring law
enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing the prescription history of
any Rhode Islander provides a judicial check to ensure that investigations are
legitimate,” said Sarah J Fessler,
MD, Rhode Island Medical Society (RIMS) president. “Judicial review
should remain the standard by which police gain access to such sensitive
information.”
Fessler was speaking
at the RIMS offices on Promenade St to implore Governor Gina Raimondo to veto “a law
that would allow law enforcement access to confidential healthcare information
without a warrant.”
Specifically, writes
the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode
Island (ACLU), “the
law would grant some state and federal law enforcement agents access to the
state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), which contains information
on every prescription for a controlled substance dispensed by Rhode Island
pharmacies, including cough syrup, common painkillers, and various other
routinely prescribed medications.”
“Rhode Island’s opioid crisis is a medical one that until now has been – rather successfully – treated as such. Allowing law enforcement access to the private prescription histories contained in the PDMP threatens the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship, and it could make patients less likely to seek and accept appropriate medical care. Our Department of Health already has the data and the authority to detect potential prescription drug diversion. This law provides a solution to a problem that does not exist – and threatens the medical privacy of all Rhode Islanders.”
More than 20 organizations,
mostly medical, have signed onto a letter to
the Governor insisting that the bill be vetoed, to protect the health and civil
liberties of patients.
“We are concerned that
these bills, if signed into law, may drive patients ‘underground’ and away from
the care that they need and have the unintended effect of increasing the number
of overdoses,” says the letter, in part.
The letter praises
Raimondo’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic that is sweeping Rhode Island
at the rate of about one death per day. But this bill “interjects law
enforcement into that approach and invades the privacy and confidentiality of
Rhode Islanders’ healthcare information.”
As result of
other General Assembly actions and
a gubernatorial task force working with prescribing professionals, the number
of opioid prescriptions has dropped by almost 25 percent since 2013,
placing Rhode Island near the top of
state efforts.
By comparison,
both Massachusetts and Connecticut are behind Rhode
Island locally and only West
Virginia is beating the state nationally.
Among the many organizations signing the
letter urging a veto are the Mental
Health Association of Rhode Island, the Opioid
Treatment Association of Rhode Island, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island,
the Substance Use and Mental Health
Leadership Council of Rhode Island, the Rhode
Island Health Center Association, and the Rhode
Island Dental Association.
The bill was championed by
Attorney General Peter Kilmartin‘s
office and as Steven Brown of
the ACLU pointed out, no proponent seems to have made a compelling argument
about why the bill was needed or why the system currently used, which requires
a judicial warrant, is inadequate.
The legislation was among the most highly
contested votes in this year’s General Assembly session, as the videos in my original article
amply demonstrate.
“This bill strikes at the heart of
doctor-patient confidentiality and undermines the public’s faith in our state Department
of Health to be a protector of the deeply private information
kept in its care,” said Brown:
“If police wanted to search the medicine cabinet in your home, they would need a warrant. The fact that the medicine cabinet is stored electronically shouldn’t change that equation. In fact, it’s worse. Unlike the PDMP, your actual medicine cabinet contains only the medicines you are using now, not an entire history of your prescription use. We urge the Governor to veto this dangerous bill.”
J Clement “Bud” Cicilline, president
of the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island, writes:
“While law enforcement has an extremely important role to play in Rhode Island’s opioid crisis, patient privacy and access to treatment must remain foremost in our efforts and approach to deal with this major health problem. There should be no compromise when it comes to respecting and protecting the rights of individuals to a privileged relationship with their treatment providers. Otherwise, fewer and fewer people will get the help they so critically need.”
The bill was sponsored by Senators William
Conley (Democrat, District 18, East Providence,
Pawtucket), Cynthia Armour Coyne (Democrat,
District 32, Barrington, Bristol, East Providence), Leonidas
Raptakis (Democrat, District 33, Coventry, East Greenwich,
West Greenwich), Michael McCaffrey (Democrat, District 29, Warwick)
and Frank Lombardi (Democrat, District 26, Cranston) and
on the House side by Representative Joseph McNamara (Democrat,
District 19, Warwick, Cranston), who chairs the House Health
Education and Welfare Committee and is also the chairman
of the Rhode Island Democratic Party.
To contact Governor
Raimondo, CLICK HERE:
Steve Ahlquist is an award-winning journalist,
writer, artist and founding member of the Humanists of Rhode Island, a
non-profit group dedicated to reason, compassion, optimism, courage and action.
The views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of any organization
of which he is a member. atomicsteve@gmail.com
and Twitter: @SteveAhlquist