West Virginia limits prescription data reporting

Rather than completely banning the collection of prescribing information--a stance which has been challenged in other states--West Virginia is using its power of the purse to slow the practice there. This week the state's Public Employees Insurance Agency told its pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts, that it should no longer give pharmaceutical companies prescribing data. Meanwhile, state legislators are now considering a bill which would ban such data reselling for all pharmacy benefits managers providing benefits to state health plans.

West Virginia's approach may be more successful than other states that attempted to make all prescription data sales in the state illegal. Other states have found this out to their dismay. In New Hampshire, for example, pharmaceutical industry vendors succeeded in getting a state law killed which would have limited the sale of physician-identifiable data to pharmas.

To find out more about the state's decision:
- read this Modern Healthcare article

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