This is bad, but around where I live, most of these pharmacies are helmed by teens just old enough to work there. I’d imagine many younger people in these positions would just do what the cops are asking: Cuz they aren’t paid to think, insufficient training, they just wanna get the day over. They deal enough with crazy customers as it is, let alone the hastle from cops. And if their policy of just let the shoplifters walk, why would it be different for cops?

I’m not American, but doesn’t HIPAA cover this kind of thing?

Every single time I hear a story like this I always say the same thing. We need a Right to Privacy added to the constitution.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

All of the big pharmacy chains in the US hand over sensitive medical records to law enforcement without a warrant—and some will do so without even running the requests by a legal professional, according to a congressional investigation.

Lawmakers noted the pharmacies’ policies for releasing medical records in a letter dated Tuesday to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra.

They include the seven largest pharmacy chains in the country: CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Cigna, Optum Rx, Walmart Stores, Inc., The Kroger Company, and Rite Aid Corporation.

The rest of the pharmacies—Amazon, Cigna, Optum Rx, Walmart, and Walgreens Boots Alliance—at least require that law enforcement requests be reviewed by legal professionals before pharmacists respond.

“We urge HHS to consider further strengthening its HIPAA regulations to more closely align them with Americans’ reasonable expectations of privacy and Constitutional principles,” the three lawmakers wrote.

“Last year, CVS Health, the largest pharmacy in the nation by total prescription revenue, only received a single-digit number of such consumer requests,” the lawmakers noted.

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