Dear AAPS Members and Friends,
The Maine legislature is considering a bill, LD 2117, that would significantly expand the state’s Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Program into a database of EVERY prescription dispensed to EVERY patient in the state.
The bill language states: “No later than January 1, 2021, the department shall expand the program to include the reporting of the dispensing of all prescription drugs….”
This is a massive overreach of government into the patient-physician relationship and an egregious violation of patients’ privacy. In addition, PDMPs focused solely on controlled substances, do not even achieve the goal of reducing opioid deaths as claimed.
Data required to be submitted, by each dispenser, for each prescription, will include the following:
And a wide array of entities are allowed access to the data.
The purported rationale for the legislation is to facilitate “patient safety activities.” However patient safety should be accomplished without violating the rights of the citizens of Maine and is properly managed by a patient, the patient’s physician, and other medical professionals the patient chooses to involve in his or her care.
If you’re not in Maine, we are letting you know so you can keep an eye out for dangerous bills like this in your state. Please let us know if you are aware of similar legislation. If you are in Maine, or have a connection to that state, read on for instructions about communicating with legislators and asking them to to stop LD 2117.
At 1pm on March 10, the bill will be considered by the Committee on Health and Human Service in Cross Building, Room 209, at the Capitol in Augusta.
PLEASE take a minute or two to speak out and ask the Committee Members to Vote NO on LD 2117.
Here’s a template message you can copy and paste. Please consider adding in comments in your own words:
Dear Chair Gratwick, Chair Hymanson, and Members of the Committee on Health and Human Services:
I ask you to vote “No” on LD 2117. Patient safety is an important goal, but expanding the collection of private medical information by the State of Maine, without patient consent, is the wrong approach. Not only does it violate patients’ privacy, but it is likely to result in patient harm. If patients cannot trust that information concerning their personal medical history will remain between them, their physicians, and other medical professionals, they may hesitate to seek out or delay necessary medical care.
Thank you for standing up for the rights of citizens of Maine and rejecting LD 2117.
You can submit official testimony using the following link:
https://www.mainelegislature.org/testimony/
Choose “Health and Human Services” from the Committee drop down menu, then “Mar 10 2020 1:00PM” from the Date menu, and be sure to check the LD 2117 box.
The menu boxes look like this:
| You can also email the committee members. Here are their addresses: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] For many email apps, clicking here will launch a new message with the addresses and template message filled in. If you use the desktop version of Microsoft Outlook, this link, may work better for you. If the link doesn’t work for you, please copy the addresses into the “To” line of a new message as well as the template comments into the message body. A subject line can be something like: “NO on LD 2117 – Protect Patient Privacy.” Thank you for speaking out! Your voice makes a difference. ~AAPS. |
