Senate agrees, physician data-mining should not be allowed

OLYMPIA – Last night the Senate passed Senate Bill 6241, which prohibits the sale or use of prescriber-identifiable prescription data for commercial or marketing purposes, otherwise known as ‘data-mining’.

“Few doctors are even aware that information about every prescription he or she writes is sold to pharmaceutical companies through a contract with the American Medical Association,” said prime sponsor Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park.

Broad patterns are studied by the pharmaceutical companies, which then target specific doctors who aren't prescribing high amounts of a specific medication. The companies then aggressively market to those doctors to change the pattern – a practice that violates the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship.

To address this issue, Fairley introduced SB 6241, which prevents information from being sold to pharmaceuticals except for research purposes.

“These firms can be pushing drugs that aren’t necessarily good for patients, and might cost them a whole lot more,” said Fairley. She notes that the Washington State Medical Association is supporting her bill.

SB 6241 moves from the Senate and will next be considered in the House.

Return to Sen. Fairley's home page