By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    physical health
    5 Ways Playing Games Can Improve Neural and Physical Health
    September 9, 2022
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    February 16, 2022
    healthcare organization
    5 Actionable Strategies For Healthcare Organizations
    August 15, 2022
    Latest News
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
    The Best Home Remedies for Migraines
    June 5, 2025
    The Hidden Impact Of Stress On Your Body’s Alignment And Balance
    May 22, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    The Latest Numbers on Exchange Enrollment
    January 20, 2014
    conversational AI in healthcare
    How Conversational AI is Making Healthcare More Patient-Centric
    July 24, 2024
    create tracking metrics HIS
    Create Tracking Metrics for ICD-10 Preparation
    February 18, 2014
    Latest News
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
    Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
    June 25, 2025
    When Healthcare Ends, the Legal Process Begins: What Families Should Know About Probate and Medical Estates
    June 20, 2025
    Preventing Contamination In Healthcare Facilities Starts With Hygiene
    June 15, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Big Brother in Your Medicine Cabinet
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > News > Big Brother in Your Medicine Cabinet
NewsPolicy & Law

Big Brother in Your Medicine Cabinet

JohnCGoodman
JohnCGoodman
Share
5 Min Read
SHARE

Should individuals be required to give up their privacy and submit to government tracking as a condition of receiving medical care? Some Colorado elected officials say yes. They introduced House Bill 12-1242. It would make providing a biometric identifier a condition of getting a prescription or regulated over-the-counter drug.

Should individuals be required to give up their privacy and submit to government tracking as a condition of receiving medical care? Some Colorado elected officials say yes. They introduced House Bill 12-1242. It would make providing a biometric identifier a condition of getting a prescription or regulated over-the-counter drug.

Want to buy SUDAFED 12 Hour or pick up a prescription at Wal-Mart? Prepare to be fingerprinted or iris scanned or the like and have the details of your purchase, along with your name, address, biometric identifier, and prescriber name and address and biometric identifier stored in a government database. Dispensing a drug to someone who doesn’t provide this information would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable with a minimum sentence of a $500 fine, or six months in jail, or both.

Though supporters talk about the importance of controlling methamphetamine precursors, alerting people to harmful drug interactions, and eliminating doctor shopping by prescription drug abusers, the language of the bill makes it crystal clear that the ultimate goal of this legislation is the improvement of the state’s ability to track and control physician prescribing. It explicitly requires the adoption of an “electronic prescribing system” in order to “monitor the collection of biometric identifiers” for everyone in the state who needs any prescription or restricted over-the-counter drug, “and to record and store” information on “the prescribing of prescription drugs…by practitioners in this state,” the “dispensing or delivering or prescription drugs to an individual in this state,” and “the dispensing or delivering of restricted over-the-counter substances.”

More Read

Health Insurance For Same Sex Couples
CMS Morale Low?
Spike in E-Cigarette Popularity Spells New Health Threat for 2018
Why 2014 Should Be a Good Year for Consumer and Enterprise Health IT
Rural Health White Paper Released by UnitedHealth Group Think Tank

If passed, this bill would allow government to gather previously unavailable data on the biometric identifiers of law-abiding individuals. When combined with data from Colorado’s All-Payer Claims Database, which already requires detailed reporting on all medical encounters, and the ObamaCare electronic health record, the biometric identifier and drug data will give the state all the information it needs to monitor and control both the medical treatments physicians are allowed to offer and the medical treatments that individuals can receive.

The bill language does not specify conditions under which people will be guaranteed access to their medications should the software fail, slow to a crawl, or misidentify someone. The actual rules will be written by bureaucrats. There is no safe harbor for people faced with a slow database or one that is not working except for a nebulous “good faith” provision. The bill does not explicitly protect the right of a third party to pick up a prescription for someone else. Virtually all politically powerful inpatient facilities were exempted.

Instead of guaranteeing access, the bill specifically says that no drug can be dispensed if the software produces a “critical alert” or “warning” that requires a “practitioner” to biometrically acknowledge receipt of the “critical alert” or “warning.”

The question, of course, is what happens if the software denies access to someone in Colorado who has been seeing an out-of-state physician who manages to practice top-flight medicine without being hooked up to Colorado’s nanny-state monitoring system? Will access also be denied to someone prescribed pain medications that the software doesn’t like by a surgeon who can’t come to the biometric reader right now because he has his fingerprints in someone’s guts? Will people who travel a lot and fill prescriptions at a national pharmacy chain be denied drugs in Colorado?

Supporters, including companies that stand to do very well by locking the state into their proprietary software, say that the bill will not raise costs, will not inconvenience anyone, and will help combat illegal drug use. They probably also believe that Santa Claus delivers complex database systems, that the Tooth Fairy pays their maintenance costs, and that they are from the government and they’re here to help.

    

TAGGED:data miningpharmaceuticals
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

car accident lawsuit
Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
Policy & Law
July 6, 2025
women dental care
What Is a Smile Makeover and How Much Does It Cost?
Dental health
June 30, 2025
HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps
Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
Global Healthcare Policy & Law Technology
June 25, 2025
recovering from injury
Rebuilding After Injury: Path to Physical and Emotional Recovery
News
June 22, 2025

You Might also Like

Image
eHealthPublic Health

Introducing the Health “Prosumer”

June 7, 2012
Image
Health ReformPolicy & Law

The Complicated Issue of Medical Poverty

March 6, 2013
personal injury trial
News

Can Personal Injury Trials Complicate Your Medical Bills?

January 2, 2024
personal injury lawsuit defenses from personal trainers
Policy & Law

Why You Need a Personal Injury Lawyer

August 23, 2022
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?