<story><title>Pharmacies share medical data with police without a warrant, inquiry finds</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/12/pharmacy-records-police-privacy-abortion/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>deepfriedchokes</author><text>Wouldn’t this be a massive HIPAA violation??</text></item><item><author>underseacables</author><text>If you get a prescription filled using insurance, that medication goes on a report. * Collects prescription drug purchase history for quantifying the relative mortality risk of life insurance applicants and provides risk scores for underwriting decisions.*&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.consumerfinance.gov&amp;#x2F;consumer-tools&amp;#x2F;credit-reports-and-scores&amp;#x2F;consumer-reporting-companies&amp;#x2F;companies-list&amp;#x2F;milliman-intelliscript&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.consumerfinance.gov&amp;#x2F;consumer-tools&amp;#x2F;credit-report...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if you don’t use insurance, it may still be possible to wind up on this list.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yold__</author><text>When you buy health insurance, you sign a temporary HIPAA release (limited duration) to cover the period that they are underwriting. They can only query your specific pharmacy records for the purposes of underwriting. So yes, this is a HIPAA violation when it is being used by the police.  I work in this space with HIPAA data.</text></comment>
<story><title>Pharmacies share medical data with police without a warrant, inquiry finds</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/12/pharmacy-records-police-privacy-abortion/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>deepfriedchokes</author><text>Wouldn’t this be a massive HIPAA violation??</text></item><item><author>underseacables</author><text>If you get a prescription filled using insurance, that medication goes on a report. * Collects prescription drug purchase history for quantifying the relative mortality risk of life insurance applicants and provides risk scores for underwriting decisions.*&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.consumerfinance.gov&amp;#x2F;consumer-tools&amp;#x2F;credit-reports-and-scores&amp;#x2F;consumer-reporting-companies&amp;#x2F;companies-list&amp;#x2F;milliman-intelliscript&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.consumerfinance.gov&amp;#x2F;consumer-tools&amp;#x2F;credit-report...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if you don’t use insurance, it may still be possible to wind up on this list.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alexwilde</author><text>The article covers this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, regulates how health information is used and exchanged among “covered entities” such as hospitals and doctor’s offices. But the law gives pharmacies leeway as to what legal standard they require before disclosing medical records to law enforcement.&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>