Law / United States / 
Vermont
Prescription Confidentiality Law, prescriber-identifiable information
A sensitive categories rule binding private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Vermont Attorney General
- Obligation class
- Consent, Prohibition
As of .
What it requires
- The Supreme Court held section 4631(d) of title 18 unconstitutional under the First Amendment in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., decided ; the lines below state what the subsection prohibited.
- The subsection barred a health insurer, a self-insured employer, an electronic transmission intermediary, a pharmacy or a similar entity from selling, licensing or exchanging for value regulated records containing prescriber-identifiable information, or permitting their use for marketing or promoting a prescription drug, unless the prescriber consented.
- It barred a pharmaceutical manufacturer or pharmaceutical marketer from using prescriber-identifiable information for marketing or promoting a prescription drug unless the prescriber consented.
- It excepted, among other listed purposes, the use of regulated records for pharmacy reimbursement, prescription drug formulary compliance, patient care management, utilization review and health care research.
What this law does
Section 4631 of title 18, Confidentiality of prescription information, was added by the 2007 act numbered 80 and most recently amended by the 2011 act numbered 136, effective .
Subsection (d) provides that a health insurer, a self-insured employer, an electronic transmission intermediary, a pharmacy, or other similar entity shall not sell, license, or exchange for value regulated records containing prescriber-identifiable information, nor permit the use of regulated records containing prescriber-identifiable information for marketing or promoting a prescription drug, unless the prescriber consents as provided in subsection (c).
Subsection (d) also provides that pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmaceutical marketers shall not use prescriber-identifiable information for marketing or promoting a prescription drug unless the prescriber consents as provided in subsection (c).
Subsection (e) provides that the prohibitions in subsection (d) do not apply to the use of regulated records for the limited purposes of pharmacy reimbursement, prescription drug formulary compliance, patient care management, utilization review, or health care research, among other listed exceptions.
Subsection (f) provides that the Attorney General may file an action in Superior Court for a violation of the section, with the same authority to investigate and to obtain remedies as if the action were brought under the Vermont Consumer Protection Act. The Supreme Court held in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc. on that section 4631(d) must be subjected to heightened judicial scrutiny and that the law cannot satisfy that standard.
When LexLint raises it
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