Data broker in Healthcare

Leetaru (2018) outlined that even if someone is not using social media but their mere use of pharmacy for a refill result in sharing one’s medical condition with research companies and pharmaceutical companies resulting in direct marketing through mails. For instance, it is completely legal for Walgreens per HIPAA guidelines to share one’s information with research companies or pharmaceutical companies to offer their products directly in the form of clinical trial participation etc. In the similar context, British pharmaceutical company namely, GlaxoSmithKline invested in an online ancestory website, 23nMe to collaborate for targeted drug discovery program (2018). In both examples, companies selling the health care data of patients usually without their clear consent to third-party companies are referred as data brokers.

Butler (2018) raised the concern that insurance rates can be increased by insurance providers using the personal health care information bought from data brokers for risk assessment using mining techniques. In 2014 Federal Trade Commission released the listing of nine health care data brokers with too much information, asked Congress for legislations (McCann, 2014). Tanner (2016) emphasized that health care data helps companies perform research which result in finding cure of diseases. For instance, heat study namely, Framingham Heart Study initiated in 1948 still provide information to researchers. On the other hand, similar information is used by companies to sell their medicines and make money. Even the data brokers can find patterns of physician prescribing habits, the information was used to tailor sales pitch of particular drug to health care provider. The practice was prosecuted in U.S. Supreme Court, but decision favored the data broker company namely, IMS on the grounds of free speech (2016).

References:

Tanner, A. (2016). How data brokers make money off your medical records. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-data-brokers-make-money-off-your-medical-records/

McCann, E. (2014). FTC calls out health data brokers. Retrieved from https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ftc-calls-out-dealth-data-brokers

Butler, M. (2018). Data brokers and health insurer partnerships could result in insurance discrimination. Retrieved from http://journal.ahima.org/2018/07/24/data-brokers-and-health-insurer-partnerships-could-result-in-insurance-discrimination/

Hung, C. (2018). Selling healthcare data. Retrieved from https://hcldr.wordpress.com/2018/07/29/selling-healthcare-data/

Leetaru, K. (2018). How data brokers and pharmacies commercialize our medical data. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2018/04/02/how-data-brokers-and-pharmacies-commercialize-our-medical-data/#555250d611a6