If subpoenaed, pharmacy chains hand over customers’ private medical information; lawmakers say warrants should be required

“The nation’s largest pharmacy chains have handed over Americans’ prescription records to police and government investigators without a warrant, a congressional investigation found, raising concerns about threats to medical privacy,” reports Drew Harwell of The Washington Post. “Though some of the chains require their lawyers to review law enforcement requests, three of the largest — CVS Health, Kroger and Rite Aid, with a combined 60,000 locations nationwide — said they allow pharmacy staff members to hand over customers’ medical records in the store.”

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Sara Jacobs of California, all Democrats, revealed the policy in a letter Monday to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. They investigated the practice “after the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ended the constitutional right to abortion,” Harwell reports. In Kentucky, the legislature has banned abortion except to save the woman’s life or prevent serious impairment of a life-sustaining organ.

“Pharmacies’ records hold some of the most intimate details of their customers’ personal lives, including years-old medical conditions and the prescriptions they take for mental health and birth control,” Harwell notes. “Because the chains often share records across all locations, a pharmacy in one state can access a person’s medical history from states with more restrictive laws. Carly Zubrzycki, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut law school, wrote last year that this could link a person’s out-of-state medical care via a ‘digital trail’ back to their home state.”

Officials with eight large pharmacy chains — Walgreens Boots Alliance, CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid, Kroger, Cigna, Optum Rx and Amazon Pharmacy — told congressional investigators that they required only a subpoena from law enforcement, not a warrant issued by a judge, to share the records. The lawmakers said employees face “extreme pressure to immediately respond.” Harwell notes, “To obtain a warrant, law enforcement must convince a judge that the information is vital to investigate a crime.”