Prescription Electronic Reporting Act of 2004

pmerv_at_direcway.com
Date: 12/20/04 

Date: 20 Dec 2004 12:26:53 -0800

The current Congress has a few lame ducks, but they're still mighty
busy birds - trying to push through lots of big legislation such as
1,000 pages of a $338 billion omnibus spending bill.

They're also hoping that little bills zip right through, below the
public's radar - bills such as H.R. 3015, which targets physicians
and pharmacists in the take-no-prisoners war on pain drugs and patients
suffering chronic pain.

H.R. 3015, the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting
Act, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in October. It's now
before the Senate, where it's slated for a voice vote before the
current session of Congress expires on January 2, 2005. A voice vote is
a way to pass a bill quickly without a record of which way each senator
voted.

This bill would encourage states to establish programs requiring
physicians and other providers such as pharmacists to report any and
every prescription for a wide range of commonly prescribed drugs,
including pain medications and antidepressants. In addition to the
medicine and dose, the doctor would have to give the government the
patient's name, address and telephone number.

This private prescription information would then become part of a
national computer database, available to the police and also possibly
to employers, newspapers, blackmailers or anybody else curious about
such information.

The patient would not even know about the release of this prescription
information, much less consent to its release or review. Police would
have access to personal prescription information without having
probable cause to believe a crime had been committed and without having
to convince a judge to issue a search warrant.

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and state licenser boards
already have great powers. They currently can get information on
prescriptions written for controlled substances and have sweeping
authority to investigate anybody they choose and to prosecute doctors
for prescribing more painkillers than agents think appropriate.

HR 3015 would dramatically enhance the reach of police and DEA agents
into the privacy of doctors and patients.

Some government officials liken doctors to terrorists, and want equal
judicial vigor in pursuing doctors. For example, according to a
September press release from the Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gene Rossi declared to a reporter
that "our office will try our best to root out [certain doctors] like
the Taliban. Stay tuned."

In opposition to the bill, Rep. Ron Paul, MD, of Texas said HR 3015 "is
yet another unjustifiable attempt by the federal government to use the
war on drugs as an excuse for invading the privacy and liberties of the
American people and for expanding the federal government's disastrous
micromanagement of medical care."

He pointed out that the government is embarking on a "war on pain
patients and their doctors" that "has already resulted in the
harassment and prosecution of many doctors ... whose only 'crime' is
prescribing legal medication ... to relieve their patients' pain. These
prosecutions, in turn, have scared other doctors so that they are
unwilling to prescribe an adequate amount of pain medication, or even
any pain medication, for their suffering patients."

Could it be that government agents are going after innocent and
hardworking doctors because the doctors are easy targets? Are real
criminals going free because these same government agents find it too
much work to break through the complicated logistic and legal defenses
that real criminals sometimes build and hide behind?

Rather than giving nonmedical officials more authority, power and
money, Congress and the president should restrain the DEA from
essentially telling doctors how to practice medicine.

Rather than using resources to send trained actors feigning pain to
entrap doctors, the DEA and other agencies should communicate and
cooperate with doctors.

[www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/HR3015-PassesLameDuck-04.htm]. Also
available from:
[http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/22/142125.shtml]
(there is more at the website)

The text of the bill may be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/
Type the bill number into the search box.

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