CITIZENS NEWS

U.S. pharmacy chains Rite Aid, CVS and Kroger happily hand over private health data on Americans to law enforcement, even WITHOUT warrants

By ethanh // 2023-12-21

America's government institutions are increasingly merging with the private sector to pry into people's lives, including by extracting medical records from United States pharmacies. Three U.S. lawmakers are expressing worry about a practice in which pharmacy chains like Rite Aid, Kroger and CVS Health are sharing private medical records with law enforcement. Their claim is that law enforcement is trying to gather data on people who live in states where abortion is now illegal but who are traveling to other nearby states where it is still legal. While this could be the case, it is more likely that law enforcement is going after people who are unvaccinated by tracking who is getting shot and who is just saying no to Big Pharma drugs. As it currently stands, federal law allows law enforcement to, in some cases, request private medical records without customer knowledge or consent. Democrats worry about the abortion angle of all this, while we are wondering: is Big Brother trying to take an inventory of who is jabbed and who is un-jabbed? In a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Xavier Becerra, the three Democrat lawmakers wrote that they want the federal government to tighten the rules so pharmacies can only release private medical records in cases where a judge has signed off on it. "Through briefings with the major pharmacies, we learned that each year law enforcement agencies secretly obtain the prescription records of thousands of Americans without a warrant," the letter states. "In many cases, pharmacies are handing over sensitive medical records without review by a legal professional. Although pharmacies are legally permitted to tell their customers about government demands for their data, most don't." (Related: Major pharmacy chains are laying off workers left and right as the economy crumbles.)

What happened to HIPAA?

You may be wondering: How is all this possible with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in place? Passed in 1996, HIPAA is a federal law that protects private medical records and other personal health information from this very thing. In short, HIPAA exists to keep Americans' private medical records protected against unlawful probing, including by law enforcement. Despite its existence, HIPAA is apparently not enough anymore to keep Americans' medical records private in instances where law enforcement wants them for some reason. "Are they looking for information on abortions, vaccines, or could it be related to opioids?" asks Revolver.news. "Regardless, if both sides are resisting, this might just be the rare 'bipartisan' issue that everyone can agree on, and wouldn't that be strange and refreshing?" In the comments, someone wrote that "HIPAA died a long time ago," hence why Americans' medical records are no longer private. "It's time to bail on allopathic medicine, including the use of Big Pharma drugs (and thus pharmacies)," wrote another about a simple solution to the problem of law enforcement probing people's private medical records. "You can do this by finding an 'out of system' naturopathic doctor in your area, one who also will recommend all natural solutions to your health care issues and, in many instances, have them already onsite for purchase." Another wrote that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as "Obamacare," is largely responsible for gutting HIPAA and medical privacy in general. "These people who went and got that information should be prosecuted and CVS, Rite Aid, Kroger and anyone else involved should be sued into oblivion," this same person added. "HIPPA was stuffed into law by the bubbas, for just this purpose of allowing BigGov to snoop thru our records, while forbidding truly interested parties such as families from so doing," suggested another. More related news coverage can be found at PrivacyWatch.news. Sources for this article include: Revolver.news NaturalNews.com

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