California Medical Board Can Obtain Prescription Records Without Warrant

California’s Medical Board has the right to obtain prescription records without a warrant or subpoena, according to a California Supreme Court ruling last month.

A Burbank internist brought a lawsuit contending his three-year probation violated his patients’ privacy after the medical board reviewed his prescription records.

The California Supreme Court decided unanimously saying the need to protect public safety outweighed any possible privacy intrusion.

In the decision, Justice Goodwin Liu wrote, “[the medical board’s] review of these records was justified by the state’s dual interest in protecting the public from the unlawful use and … protecting patients from negligent or incompetent physicians.”

The case revolved around the state’s Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) which requires that every prescription of a Schedule II, III or IV controlled substance be logged into a database.

A medical board investigator looked at a CURES prescriber report involving hundreds of patients, eventually bringing charges against the internist.

Read more at LA Times.com.