Still Think Your Medical Records Are Confidential?

Sucker.

Texas: Med Board lets DEA sneak peeks at patient records

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been sifting through hundreds of supposedly private medical files, looking for Texas doctors and patients to prosecute without the use of warrants.

Instead, the agents are tricking doctors and nurses into thinking they’re with the Texas Medical Board. When that doesn’t work, they’re sending doctors subpoenas demanding medical records without court approval.

The DEA can’t even count how many times it has resorted to the practice nationwide. A spokesman estimated it was in the thousands.

But, as a legal brief filed last week points out, lawyers for the federal government can’t find a single case in which a court has “authorized the use of such a broad array of patient information with such a sparse record as to why it needs such information.”

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Texas did just that, setting up a showdown in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals over whether the DEA needs a reason to go rummaging through private medical records in search of pill mills and prescription drug abusers.

Without the legalese, the issue is simple: How good a reason does the DEA need to get access to medical records? The DEA doesn’t think it needs much of one.

Attorneys for Dallas-area doctors Joseph and Abbas Zadeh argue “the DEA should not be allowed to circumvent the requirements of a warrant, and should be required to show probable cause.” Failing that, they should at least have to justify their intrusions to a judge who’s acting as more than a rubber stamp.

The DEA’s practice of avoiding warrant requirements has produced this absurdity: If you have a prescription for Adderall or OxyContin, you might be safer getting your drugs on the street than through your own doctor.

This is why I love my doctor. he is old school and doesn't use electronic record keeping.
If the DEA wanted to go sniffing through his records they had best bring a lunch because they would be doing a lot of paper shuffling.

He also doesn't ask about things that do not have anything to do with why I am there.

As far as I can see from this, the DEA should have it's ass spanked, hard, for violating peoples privacy without cause.

I am not getting a warm fuzzy knowing these assclowns have nothing better to do than go sniffing through supposedly private medical records looking for a reason to justify their existence.