In Florida, and all over the country, public entities are filing nuisance law suits over opiates, corresponding responsibility violations of doctors and pharmacists, seeking to recover the costs to the community. Small business are swept up in sweeping civil nuisance law suits by local governments. I represent one pharmacy subpoenaed to produce 10 years of prescription data, dispensing data, and purchasing data. We fought this subpoena and won.
Now, the State of Florida is suing health care providers seeking an unusually intrusive trove of data on millions of prescription drugs filled in the state last year, including the names of patients taking the medications, their dates of birth and doctors they’ve seen. It is obvious that the demand impermissibly violates the health privacy and security of millions of Floridians, and that the state had not clearly outlined its authority or reasons for the action. Federal privacy law allows benefit managers to hand over limited data about individual patients in certain circumstances, such as when regulators are conducting an audit. But, according to experts, Florida’s data request could violate the law because it is so broad and may go beyond what the regulator needs to conduct its review
Call me to discuss you small business’ need to respond to audits, subpoenas and other document requests from the various federal or state agencies. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/health/florida-prescriptions-patient-privacy-data.html
