Pharmacy Board Prepares to Tackle 'Data-Mining' Study

The Texas State Board of Pharmacy is preparing to launch a study ordered by the 2009 Legislature on so-called “data mining” of information from prescription records containing patient-identifiable and practitioner-identifiable information by pharmacy benefit managers, insurers and others for advertising or promoting of pharmaceutical products.Several states have taken action to prohibit or limit such practices in recent years, and in June the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal upholding New Hampshire’s law restricting such activity.Critics of data mining have ex...