Louisiana MDs win legal battle over patient record disclosure

A group of Louisiana physicians have won their battle to keep their patients' records out of the hands of a pharmaceutical company--though they may face future challenges on the issue. The dispute comes as part of the Louisiana attorney general's suit against Janssen Pharmaceutic, which the state says has been illegally promoting off-label uses of Risperdal. The AG also is arguing that in so doing, Janssen defrauded the state's Medicaid program. Though no doctors or patients are parties to the suit, Janssen got a court order allowing it to subpoena physicians for the medical records of up to 6,000 Medicaid beneficiaries who received Risperdal prescriptions. The order also allowed the pharma to depose individual doctors on their Risperdal prescription decisions. However, the state's physicians contested the order, with judges concluding that Louisiana's laws governing medical privacy would invalidate the request.

To learn more about the case:
- read this AMNews article

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