I deal with information security quite a bit at my cubicle job. I don’t know everything there is to know about information security, but one thing that I know for sure is that medical records have a heightened level of protection. I think that is common knowledge by now. Personal health records are not public records, and only people that qualify for that information are allowed to access it. That is, unless you are a DEA agent. Per Watch Dog:
Instead, the agents are tricking doctors and nurses into thinking they’re with the Texas Medical Board. When that doesn’t work, they’re sending doctors subpoenas demanding medical records without court approval.
The DEA can’t even count how many times it has resorted to the practice nationwide. A spokesman estimated it was in the thousands.
But, as a legal brief filed last week points out, lawyers for the federal government can’t find a single case in which a court has “authorized the use of such a broad array of patient information with such a sparse record as to why it needs such information.”
Obviously these DEA agents are just fishing for information, otherwise they would have warrants signed by judges that would allow them to legally obtain this information. This is yet another example of the DEA doing what it wants, regardless of what the rules are. The DEA needs to be de-funded and shut down immediately. By their own admission, they don’t even know how many times they have done this, just that it’s likely ‘in the thousands.’ That’s clearly unacceptable.
