Prosecutors Can Examine Limbaugh Records

Yahoo/AP ^

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Prosecutors can examine Rush Limbaugh's medical records to determine whether he should be charged with "doctor shopping" for prescription painkillers, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Winikoff denied the conservative commentator's request to keep the records sealed.

Limbaugh's attorneys had argued that the seizure of the records from doctors in Florida and California violated the radio host's privacy. Investigators obtained the records last month after discovering that Limbaugh received more than 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors, at a pharmacy near his $24 million Palm Beach mansion.

Doctor shopping refers to looking for a doctor willing to prescribe drugs illegally, or getting prescriptions for a single drug from more than one doctor at the same time.

The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office began investigating Limbaugh last year, after his former maid told them she had been supplying him prescription painkillers for years.

Limbaugh recently admitted his addiction, stemming from severe back pain, and took a five-week leave from his afternoon radio show to enter a rehabilitation program.

[Liberty Valance]

"Hold back!"

Yea sorry, guess i lost my head there for a minute. I just hate to see a political hanging without saying anything about the blackmail that brought it about.

[Future Useless Eater]

How many lines do these THUGS in black robes need to cross
before America wakes up?

They don't uphold existing laws, they MAKE UP whatever they
need to at the moment to fit their agenda...

Election laws and rules agreed to before an election? Not if
they don't yield the desired result.

Kill a Cerebral Palsy woman by calling her 'vegetative' and
dis-allowing all opposing evidence? No problem. In fact,
even claim the PRIVACY LAWS trump the legislature and
Executive branches.

Ignoring the privacy laws COMPLETELY when it might result
in jailing a political opponent? THEY'RE ALL FOR IT!!!

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Message from Attorney General Charlie Crist 8-1-2003

I have used this space on some occasions to discuss the social cancer of drug abuse. Families and lives are destroyed not only by well-known street narcotics such as heroin and cocaine, but also by less known killers such as legal prescription medication like OxyContin. Illustrating the growing awareness of prescription drug abuse, this week's arrest of a Melbourne pain clinic doctor accused of trafficking in OxyContin attracted statewide media coverage.

This comes on top of another success in the area of prescription drug fraud, when the Office of Statewide Prosecution worked with law enforcement to arrest 19 individuals on charges of adulterating prescription medication. The arrests followed indictments by a Fort Lauderdale grand jury last week.

Florida is working on two fronts to attack the problems surrounding prescription drugs. We have spoken of our success in working with the 2003 Legislature to pass the Prescription Drug Protection Act. In addition to creating significant penalties for marketing bogus medicine, a tracking system is now required enabling consumers to have confidence that they are getting just what the doctor ordered – not a watered-down substitute.

Another bill was making its way through the Legislature, but did not emerge. This legislation would provide a database of patients and prescriptions. For instance, if an individual had been prescribed 300 capsules of OxyContin on Tuesday, it would be difficult for that patient to be prescribed and obtain 300 more on Thursday because an easily accessible computer record would be available to prevent the second purchase.

Why is it so important to stop doctor shopping? It would save lives.

A 2002 medical examiners report indicated that of the 9,116 drug deaths last year, 3,324 involved the use of pharmaceuticals — that's more than one out of every three drug-related deaths in Florida. Subtracting alcohol, prescription drugs accounted for 60 percent of drug-related overdose deaths in 2002. Everything possible must be done to prevent these deaths.

Anyone who had the opportunity to attend the Governor's drug summit earlier this year heard two mothers tell their heartbreaking stories of losing sons. In both cases, these young men were addicted to prescription medication and were able to gain access to quantities that eventually killed them. Why would we not wish to prevent these tragedies?

Florida already has the money to create the database, thanks to an earlier settlement reached between the Office of the Attorney General and Purdue Pharma, the company that markets OxyContin. Specific funding for creating this database was part of this settlement. While many in the Legislature support the concept for the database, there is concern that the database will impact the privacy rights of law-abiding patients. This is a valid concern that should be incorporated into the final design of the bill. I believe that it is possible to devise a database that protects the innocent while pointing the way toward the guilty.

The problem of prescription drug abuse will not go away on its own. Just two days after officials announced the arrest of the pain clinic doctor, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, working cooperatively with the Office of Statewide Prosecution, announced the arrest of several individuals charged with trafficking and conspiracy to deliver OxyContin (along with Ecstasy, cocaine and marijuana).

On its own, a database will not eliminate this problem, but it would be an extremely powerful weapon in our arsenal. I will be pleased to work in any way possible with Governor Bush, the Legislature, and the Office of Drug Control – so ably led by its director, retired Army Colonel Jim McDonough – to see this through. The doctor shopping must stop. Lives depend upon it.

[antiRepublicrat]

This isn't right. This is a complete invasion of privacy.

Search warrants normally involve some invasion of privacy. They have every right to see those records if they can show probable cause to a judge, which apparently they have done.

[Catspaw]

Other than Roy Black's statements at the court hearing concerning the release of medical records, did Black or anyone else offer any testimony or evidence concerning the blackmail by Rush's former maid?

[ConservativeMan55]

[Alberta's Child]

This is the old "sure I was speeding, Judge, but so was everyone else" defense. It never works.

Actually, that defense never works because traffic violations are not criminal offenses and therefore the defendants in these cases do not have the same Constitutional protections as those involved in criminal cases.

In U.S. legal circles, selective enforcement of a law has long been held as a legitimate reason to overturn a conviction or abandon a prosecution effort. The term "arbitrary and capricious" is specifically applied in cases where someone is prosecuted for a criminal offense even though large numbers of people are openly permitted to break the same law.

[Lazamataz]

I a have a Nigerian woman in the back with some herbs and goat blood…”

Oh please. I've got those stacked up on pallets.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Cline's attorney denies the accusations.

[Catspaw]

I know Cline's attorney denied the allegations. Unless I see more info, I'm inclined to put the blackmail allegations into the "Mark Geragos says that a Satanic cult killed Laci" file.

[m1-lightning]

But HIPAA only applies to medical records maintained by health care providers, health plans, and health clearinghouses

Isn't Rush's medical record maintained by a health care provider?

[Captain Jack Aubrey]

I don't know about Florida, but in Virginia "doctor shopping" is prosecuted regularly. With no prior record and cooperation, it is possible to get the charge reduced by the proscutor to a misdemeanor. Also, traffic offenses are criminal offenses, at lease in Virginia.

[Lazamataz]

There is no such thing as privacy in America any more.

[ConservativeMan55]

I completely agree. The other thread was locked.

[Egregious Philbin]

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m3045/22_146/96925876/p4/article.jhtml?term=

Nearly all links with the phrase "doctor shopping" lead to articles about Rush though. I must admit I have never really heard the term before, though the concept isn't new. Elvis did it, for example.

Can Rush's lawyers appeal? If examining medical records is unconstitutional, then so be it. But why should we defend Rush? He committed a crime, and I think he's more likely to get away with it because of his money than to be caught up in some sort of Democratic "witchhunt."

[Wolfie]

...

[Alberta's Child]

If I were a medical professional, I would advertise my services by highlighting the fact that I would never release a patient's medical records to a law enforcement agency or court.

When the baliff came to deliver a subpoena for someone's medical records, my response would always be the same: "I don't keep records for any of my patients."

[Liberty Valance]

By golly you're right. Get a rope...hang that druggie now before he sees a court room.

[dead]

Nigerian women, or herbs and goats?

[Alberta's Child]

If a traffic offense is a criminal offense in Virginia, then do people who get speeding tickets have a right to a jury trial?