Health Care Law Blog
On Tuesday, June 11, members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel requesting information regarding how the IRS handles confidential medical information. The letter comes after a recent lawsuit alleging that the IRS illegally seized over 60 million medical records in 2011.
The lawsuit, a class action filed by an unnamed health care provider against 15 unnamed IRS agents, alleges that the agents improperly seized the medical records in violation of the Fourth Amendment during a search executed on March 11, 2011. According to the complaint, the agents seized more than ten million medical records despite knowing that the records were not within the scope of their warrant, (which authorized only the seizure of financial records related to a former employee). The seized records allegedly contained "intimate and private information . . . including psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, [and] sexual or drug treatment." The complaint further alleges that the agents threated to "rip out" the servers containing the medical data if the company's IT personnel did not voluntarily transfer the information to the IRS.
On Tuesday, June 11, 2013, the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) announced that it had reached an $80 million civil settlement agreement, the largest in DEA history, with Walgreen Co. (“Walgreens”) to resolve allegations involving an “unprecedented number” of record-keeping and dispensing violations under the Controlled Substance Act (“CSA”). According to the DEA’s Press Release, Walgreens negligently allowed controlled substances, including Oxycodone and other prescription painkillers, to be diverted into the black market.
