ECKERD SETTLES PRIVACY ISSUE IN FLORIDA
Eckerd Corp., Clearwater, FL, last week reached a $1 million resolution with the Florida attorney general and agreed to revise its policy for collecting consumers’ medical data for marketing.
The drug chain’s pharmacists had shoppers sign a form when they got their prescription; the form doubled as permission to give prescription data to the parent company for marketing.
The AG said it wasn’t clear enough to consumers that they were allowing their data to be used. An investigation begun in December found no evidence that Eckerd (a division of J.C. Penney Co.) improperly shared data. As part of the resolution, Eckerd pays $1 million to fund an ethics chair at Florida A&M University’s School of Pharmacy.
Eckerd’s new consent policy includes five directives:
* Refrain from using prescription pick-up logs or forms to obtain customer authorization for the use of medical information for marketing purposes.
* Restrict direct marketing of prescription drugs to customers who have provided written consent.
* Fully advise customers of the type of medical information that will be disclosed and describe the entities to whom the information will be disclosed.
* Clearly and conspicuously disclose who authored and is paying for communications to customers.
* Provide in every communication the company sends to customers a free and easy way to withdraw consent to receive such communications.
