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For more than a decade, a few companies have bought data naming doctors and the medications they prescribe and sold the information to drug companies - and Nevada legislators said Wednesday the practice is illegal and must stop.
Sen. Joseph Heck, R-Henderson, berated company officials who testified before the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, calling assertions that they use the data for public good "ridiculous." Heck, also a physician, has sponsored SB231, a bill that would clarify a law that state lawyers say already bans the practice.
Heck said he and other doctors have long suspected that their prescribing practices were being transmitted to drug companies. When the issue came up during a 2005 debate on an Assembly health care bill, he said his suspicions proved true.
He asked the Legislative Counsel Bureau's legal staffers to clarify state laws on the issue. In August, they issued an opinion stating the practice was illegal. Heck requested a bill to close any loopholes and make the state law unambiguous.
Heck said he also invited the data-mining companies to show him evidence that the practice helps the public, and offer amendments to the bill. He received none, he said.
"Perhaps I'm just not prescribing the right drugs, but I've never seen any of the greater public good," said Heck. "My major concern with this process now is that it is, according to our own legal counsel, currently against the law. And what this bill simply says is, it's our law and we mean it."
Carol Livingston, a vice president at Wolters Kluwer Health, said that drug companies use the prescriber data, which doesn't include patient names, to keep doctors educated on the drugs they use, as well as in research.
"This bill could deny physicians updated information on cutting-edge, specialized uses of treatments," said Livingston. "The bill has unintended, unknown ramifications, and is somewhat overreaching and imprecise in its application."
Heck responded that the law is now clear, and asked how her company could be collecting data in Nevada without violating state law.
"Prescriber level data has been out in the industry for more than 14 years," said Livingston. "So it's not new. I'm not sure why it has not been addressed by the appropriate legal authorities."
Livingston added that her company buys the data from headquarters of major pharmacy chains and pharmacy management companies, and may not be getting it directly from Nevada.
Randolph Frankel, a lobbyist for data-mining company IMS Health, said that banning collection of prescriber data would hurt research, and affect efforts to stop Medicaid and Medicare fraud.
Another IMS Health representative said the company became aware only recently of the Nevada statute banning the practice, and that the company's lawyers had a different interpretation of the law.
Heck called that argument "disingenuous."
"In all honesty, you guys are digging yourself a deeper hole," said Heck. "If a pharmaceutical company is deciding who they're going to try to recruit for a high-risk drug study, based on the drugs they've prescribed in the past, that's even more reason that this data should not be released."
Sen. Joseph Heck, R-Henderson, berated company officials who testified before the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, calling assertions that they use the data for public good "ridiculous." Heck, also a physician, has sponsored SB231, a bill that would clarify a law that state lawyers say already bans the practice.
Heck said he and other doctors have long suspected that their prescribing practices were being transmitted to drug companies. When the issue came up during a 2005 debate on an Assembly health care bill, he said his suspicions proved true.
He asked the Legislative Counsel Bureau's legal staffers to clarify state laws on the issue. In August, they issued an opinion stating the practice was illegal. Heck requested a bill to close any loopholes and make the state law unambiguous.
Heck said he also invited the data-mining companies to show him evidence that the practice helps the public, and offer amendments to the bill. He received none, he said.
"Perhaps I'm just not prescribing the right drugs, but I've never seen any of the greater public good," said Heck. "My major concern with this process now is that it is, according to our own legal counsel, currently against the law. And what this bill simply says is, it's our law and we mean it."
Carol Livingston, a vice president at Wolters Kluwer Health, said that drug companies use the prescriber data, which doesn't include patient names, to keep doctors educated on the drugs they use, as well as in research.
"This bill could deny physicians updated information on cutting-edge, specialized uses of treatments," said Livingston. "The bill has unintended, unknown ramifications, and is somewhat overreaching and imprecise in its application."
Heck responded that the law is now clear, and asked how her company could be collecting data in Nevada without violating state law.
"Prescriber level data has been out in the industry for more than 14 years," said Livingston. "So it's not new. I'm not sure why it has not been addressed by the appropriate legal authorities."
Livingston added that her company buys the data from headquarters of major pharmacy chains and pharmacy management companies, and may not be getting it directly from Nevada.
Randolph Frankel, a lobbyist for data-mining company IMS Health, said that banning collection of prescriber data would hurt research, and affect efforts to stop Medicaid and Medicare fraud.
Another IMS Health representative said the company became aware only recently of the Nevada statute banning the practice, and that the company's lawyers had a different interpretation of the law.
Heck called that argument "disingenuous."
"In all honesty, you guys are digging yourself a deeper hole," said Heck. "If a pharmaceutical company is deciding who they're going to try to recruit for a high-risk drug study, based on the drugs they've prescribed in the past, that's even more reason that this data should not be released."
