Limbaugh: Medical records protected by state law

Apr 1, 4:49 PM EST

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Rush Limbaugh's attorney argued Friday that an appeals court misconstrued Florida law when it ruled prosecutors could review the conservative commentator's medical records during their investigation into whether he illegally purchased painkillers.

Attorney Roy Black said state lawmakers afforded patients' certain privacy rights and "never intended to permit the seizure of patient records by search warrant," according to a 22-page argument he filed with the Florida Supreme Court.

Prosecutors seized Limbaugh's medical records in 2003 for an investigation into whether he illegally purchased prescription painkillers, but they have remain sealed, pending the outcome of Limbaugh's appeals.

Limbaugh lost at the appellate court level and now wants the Florida Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that would open his medical records and possibly allow prosecutors to build a criminal case against him.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_LIMBAUGH_PAINKILLERS_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT&TEMPLATE=state.shtml

Sorry Rush, that's up to the judge to decide. Nice to see this case is still dragging through the courts.

a very long list of doctor's i suspect.

A BIG fat slob with a Boil on his ASS.

What a sight---

And the ASS HOLE is a DRUG ABUSING right wing Fundy Nut-Job to BOOT.


CLASSIC

another statistic.

You can't escape justice, rush. Eventually, you reap what you sow. I hope to sell the popcorn when you do.

The Supreme Court: Don't leave home without it.

Seriously...I don't understand how these folks get all these hearings and appeals.
Anyone else, they'd be under the jail by now for the quantity of drugs he purchased and this slimeball is still on the air spouting his hate. Would be curious if this is how they treated the rest of the dealers in Florida or if his case was the only one that they pulled his medical records?
I haven't kept up with it.

Anyone else would had already been adjudicated.

they need a computer judge for all their legal needs, for a party that bashes lawyers non-stop, they can get pretty cozy with them when they want their needs met. Don't you just love the hypocrisy of it all. Also since Rush, the mouth that roared, never leaves the house, (his studio is in his house), I thought it was his browbeaten
housekeeper that he coerced into getting the "painkillers" he uses.

daughter,both are criminals according to Florida's drug laws.They are both free and the prospect of them going to jail is zero.If they were both poor and black you can bet the family farm they would be in jail.

Yep, a long list of willing hands who wrote scrips.

butts would be in trouble prescribing all those pills for such a short period of time.

Let's see: In 6 months 2000 pills prescribed by 4 doctors. That averages 500 pills per doctor in that amount of time.

Wouldn't a doctor get just a little suspicious??? Mine sure as hell would.

And what about the woman (house worker) who says she got pain killers for him? What happened to her story? And how did she obtain them?

Who has answers?

I think El Drugbo was Doctor shopping. This is where you go to different doctors and describe the same symptoms. Then you get prescription for the same medication multiple times. So it may not be a single doctor involved in this, and they may not have been aware that he was getting prescriptions from another doctor.

And that is illegal in Florida.

The above poster mentioned about 500 tablets per physican over a 6 month period - if that is true, that amount is not unreasonable, or out of line. What is wrong is going from doctor to doctor and pharmacy to pharmacy to have the scripts filled. That is what is illegal in Florida.

Because pharmacies are the ones that dispense the prescription drugs.

Then there are the records from the pharmaceutical companies.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

remember how the Repugs screamed for 8 years about Clinton's medical records. They wanted to know which way his dick hung.

...a car accident. Good luck with that defense, Rush. If they can get my medical records for a civil suit, they can certainly get yours for a felony case.

I have to admit I was pissed that they insisted on getting my medical records...so pissed that I even told them which antibiotic I was taking. :eyes: I gave them so much information they were drowning in it.

and the insurance company got all my medical records..i was furious when i found out..but helpless to do anything about it..they already had them!!..and i was the victim of a head on crash...and i was suing my own insurance because the guy who hit me did not have insurance...and i had uninsured and under insured insurance...and i was seriously injured..but my own insurance compasny pulled all my medical records!!

don't ever think your own insurace company is on your side..thats a falacy!!

fly

not Terry Shivo's wishes?

they ain't seen nothing yet!

Now, if Rush's taxes were being investigated, I'd be more inclined to see things his way. But given the nature of the charges and the circumstances of the investigation, I think the authorites have reasonable and proper probable cause. Put another way, they would have LONG since looked at OUR records if WE were Rush!

:headbang:
rocknation

OxyContin Limbaugh won't even have to go to court to pay court costs.

He should be brought up on the charges of having all the pills not prescribed to him. He admitted he had a problem, went to rehab, and now is back in all of his unearned luxurious living. The man is even seeing a woman that he was seeing before he and his (4th or 3rd) wife were separated.

Look at her and then look at him. Surely he knows why she would be interested in him. He has the private jet, several homes, big yaghts, plus all that money just lying there.

Now that I think about it . . . I could learn to love an ugly, fat, ignorant, rich man to have all the best material things in the World. Naw, no amount of money would be worth it to me to lay with that disgusting waste of human flesh.

"When you strip it all away," Rush had said of the Grateful Dead guitarist, "Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks."

"By legalizing drugs, all you're going to do is define further deviance downward," he said. "We have a duty to pass our values to our descendents. Values that will maintain the standards of behavior and ensure the survivability of the American way of life. And drugs are no different. You end up destroying more than yourself."

And, of course, MY favorite:

"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."

http://www.campchaos.com/show.php?iID=201

The band liked it so much, they provided the music sample!

:headbang:
rocknation

LOL Hysterical, and all the better because it's ACCURATE.

He needs to pop that anal zit and enlist. That'll straighten out his back!

I agree wih Jeff Christie for once.

They are involved in court battles to keep PP patients' records private--it sounds like intimidation is behind the 'fishing expeditions' in those cases.

Planned Parenthood...are involved in court battles to keep...(their) records private--it sounds like intimidation is behind the 'fishing expeditions' in those cases.

I have two words for you, Marthe--probable cause!

The investigators of Rush had a suspect, a criminal charge, and an intelligible reason to believe that his medical records will produce additional evidence. That's why a judge granted the search warrant.

But the Planned Parenthood investigators want to go pillaging through their records like Atilla The Hun in hopes of coming up with a statutory rape victim. Unless they're looking for specific information about a specific patient which they could tie to a specific suspect, they ARE fishing--and unconstitutionally!

:headbang:
rocknation

I just got a newsletter the other day from PP about this threat they are facing--even if not the same sort of case as Limbaugh's, this seemed a good place to post about it--a reminder of the shambles our privacy is, and the juxtaposition of the reasons behind the cases.

It means that you wrote a post that made someone wish they'd written it themselves!

:headbang:
rocknation

n/t

...oh wait, it is the devil himself. Either way, People should have this stuff kept private. Yeah Limbaugh is a major hypocrite, and he obviously broke the law here, but what drug addict hasn't?

while fatboy's whistling past the graveyard of former talkshow hosts convicted of felonies.

Gyre

... conservatives (with some DINO assistance) comes back to bite El Rushbo on his anal cyst. Poetic justice. May every erosion of individual rights they've wrought carve canyons through their rotten carcasses.

red state A.Gs forcing clinics and doctors to turn over abortion records but defend Rush's "right to confidentiality"? Hah! One more point in the CONservative Hypocrisy Score Book.

But you know that this is the "do as I say, not as I do" branch of the republican party.

Oh, Anakin-be extra careful around volcanoes and lava, hear? ;-)

to see him hauled off to jail? Well I can dream. O'lielly next.

I remember when I was a kid, a game show called Queen for a Day, since the Congress has taken over the job of the judiciary in this country in the cases they care about, why not spend 1 day a week on legislating on their favorite legal cases, there's all of the DeLay's legal battles, the election 2004 legal issues, Rush Limbaugh,
too bad O'Reilly settled, but who knows maybe Ann Coulter could bring up something, Pat Buchanan was pelted with salad dressing that ought to be good for a month's review, (remember no matter how small a case, it can be heard in Congress, (because Congress decides how important it is), let's move Michael Jackson's case to the Congress, too bad Martha Stewart's case has already been decided. We could even have Judge Judy present evidence. (Oh and since it's paid for by taxpayers money, we would allow all registered republican voters to be polled on the verdict).

on the NYSE and we the people could actually make money off Congress' based on sheer entertainment value. Damned brilliant, I say.

as a bonus from the proceeds,
ATTENTION major networks here's an idea for a new reality show survivor meets the beltway or judging for dollars

matters between a physician and a patient and the state should keep its nose out of our private health care decisions and data?

Um ... the pot is on line one and he wants me to tell you that you're black.

The only way to protect the privacy of everybody's medical records is to protect Rush's medical privacy too. Sorry, but that is the way it works.

How would you feel if, in a few years, the gov't wanted to look at your medical records and cited Limbaugh vs Florida as the precedence that allows them to read your records.

(in NY and probably in most states) the insurance carrier has the right to medical records relative to that injury and any other medical records if there is any indication of prior injury. Comp law in NY specifically states no permission is required from the patient for the insurance company to access the records. Once you sign on the dotted line for health insurance you have the same situation. The insurance company has blanket access to your medical records. INsurance company = corporation = U. S. Govt. See how it works?

If you don't have a pile of money to private pay for all your health needs, you are SCREWED like most of us working peons. They mainly want to have the records to look for ways to deny claims so that they can maintain their profit margins. This needs to change

What's a law-abiding citizen like Pigboy doing with a TRIAL LAWYER?