April 15, 2009
IMS, SDI want Supremes to look at prescription data laws
IMS Health and SDI are seeking a Supreme Court review of a ruling that restricts the commercial use of prescriber data in the state of New Hampshire.
The companies filed a joint petition for a writ of certiorari —a Supreme Court review—of IMS Health vs. Ayotte, a federal appeals court case that overturned a district court decision allowing the commercial use of prescriber data. Both cases hinged on New Hampshire's Prescription Information Law (PIL), enacted in July of 2006. The PIL makes it a crime for a pharmacy, insurer, or similar entity to transfer or use prescription data for the purposes of “any activity that could be used to influence sales or market share of a pharmaceutical product.”
IMS Health utilizes prescriber-identifiable data, or information that contains the identity of a prescriber. SDI uses de-identifed patient level data, or patient data that strips individual patient information such as name, address, and SSN (in accordance with HIPAA), but provides info about the patient's practitioner, pharmacy, product or payer, according to an SDI spokesperson.
New Hampshire's PIL blocks IMS Health and SDI from gathering prescriber data from the state. That amounts to an abridgement of free speech, according to the petition.
“The First Circuit's conclusion that the truthful, factual information…lacks First Amendment protection because of its commercial or medical context flies in the face of settled free speech principles,” the petition said. The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether it will take up the case before its summer recess in July.