Intractable pain patients residing in the state of Washington, watch out. The Washington State Court of Appeals has ruled that the state’s pharmacy board, which was originally designed to regulate the activities of pharmacies, can assume the position of law enforcement and inspect your medical records at any medical facility in the state, copy those records and present them to a prosecutor who could file charges against you without ever considering the need for a criminal search warrant.
This Court of Appeals ruling, case number 48891-1-1, sets the precedent for police officers to have the same power. Intractable pain patients who are under the care of pain specialists and use prescribed opioid pain medications or other regulated prescription medications should be outraged at this ruling.
In 1996, Snohomish County Judge Howard ruled in a case involving my husband that it is illegal for pharmacy board inspectors to act as law enforcement officers, seize patient medical records and hand them over to authorities who then would have the power to question an individual’s use of the medications. After a 12-member jury and a second Snohomish County judge, Ronald Castleberry, ruled the same as Judge Howard, that we have a constitutional right to privacy regarding our health-care information, the Washington State Court of Appeals decided the state and federal constitutions do not protect our confidential medical records. The Court of Appeals blessed the pharmacy board inspectors to act as police officers and gave them and all law enforcement officers in Washington the power to conduct searches of patient medical records at their whim without search warrants.
The federal government has taken huge steps this year in regulations regarding the privacy and protection of our medical records in order to enforce our constitutional rights. If you have visited your doctor or dentist or your pharmacy in past months you would have been required to sign HIPAA forms. These forms are informing you, the patient, of how that particular medical facility is going to protect your medical records and keep them private. The medical records cannot be inspected by anyone without your permission unless officers of the law present a search warrant signed by a judge saying they can inspect your records. Although medical facilities across this nation have complied with the federal requirements, the state Court of Appeals has decided that HIPAA means nothing to the state’s pharmacy board inspectors and law enforcement, and that federal regulations do not apply to them.
This month’s Reader’s Digest presents an excellent article on intractable (chronic) pain. Researchers in Boston have published findings that now prove intractable pain to be a disease. Pain sensors and brain neurons develop a syndrome, a condition that cannot be reversed unless the source of the pain is healed. In most intractable pain cases the source of the pain is there to stay. Many intractable pain patients, under the care of pain specialists, can live an almost normal lifestyle with the use of publicly misunderstood, opioid pain medications.
However, if you reside in Washington and you are a victim of intractable pain disease and seek treatment, you have been left unprotected from untrained state authorities looking at your medical records and deciding if you are a criminal and need to be charged with a crime. The Court of Appeals ruled that this unwarranted process by pharmacy inspectors and law enforcement agents is OK. Why is HIPAA important to everyone in this nation except the Washington State Court of Appeals? Why can our federal government spend billions of dollars developing HIPAA regulations to comply with our federal constitutional rights, and have three state judges throw HIPAA out the window when it comes to pharmacy board inspectors and agents of law enforcement?
These are questions all intractable pain patients as well as medical providers who live in our state need to be asking.
Susan B. Murphy’s husband, former Snohomish County Sheriff Patrick Murphy, recently filed an appeal of the state Court of Appeals decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the appeals court in February threw out a $2.6 million jury award, overturning a lower-court ruling that the state pharmacy board had acted improperly when it pursued Patrick Murphy’s prescription records without first obtaining a search warrant. In September, the state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
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