WASHINGTON (KCBS) -- When you pick up a prescription from your local pharmacy, you don't expect your medical information to be sold.
But that's just what happens with the little-publicized practice known as medical data mining.
USC Pharmaceutical Economics Professor Joel Hay said the practice is fairly rare, but does happen.
KCBS' Rebecca Corral Reports
"I don't think it happens on a routine basis. HIPA does protect you," Hay said. "But the only way it can happen legally is if you have specifically authorized through signing some paperwork somewhere, permission to access and use this information for these purposes."
Hay said it's something you might unwittingly do, like when you sign a flurry of paperwork from your insurance company or at the doctor's office.
A San Diego woman interviewed by the New York Times had no idea when she bought fertility drugs that her data had been sold for marketing purposes.
Then about a year later, when she started receiving coupons in the mail about diapers and formula, she became suspicious, seeing how the drugs didn't work and she was never able to get pregnant.
The Obama administration is expected to strictly enforce laws against data mining.
(kmi)
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