State Privacy Monitor Service
Catch Privacy Bills in the Bud!
Introduction
Privacy bills keep popping up in state legislatures. Even a cursory accounting of the number of bills currently wending their way through the state legislative process reveals, on average, about two dozen privacy-related bills per state, which projects to over 1,000 bills for all fifty states (see Table).
|
State
|
No. of Bills*
|
|
CALIFORNIA
|
28
|
|
NORTH CAROLINA
|
36
|
|
NEW YORK
|
35
|
|
TEXAS
|
11
|
*Found with "privacy" keyword search of state legislature sites (June 2003)
Of course, not all states are as aggressive in their privacy legislation as those listed in the Table. However, many states are geared to follow the lead of these and other key states.
It is not the volume of privacy-related legislation that is the primary issue for pharmaceutical companies. The issue is the problem of "separating the wheat from the chaff" and identifying which of the many bills pose a credible threat to pharmaceutical marketing and research. Bills often "pop up" like critters in a carnival "Wac-a-Mole" game!
Catch Bills in the Bud
What's needed is a monitoring and clearinghouse service that provides "real time" tracking of state legislatures and identifies those privacy-related bills of concern to the pharma industry and that have a chance of being passed and signed into law. Essentially, government affairs personnel, compliance executives, privacy officers, and legal counsels at pharmaceutical companies need an "early warning system" to help them catch problematic bills in the bud before it's too late to act.
Early Warning System for:
- government affairs personnel
- compliance executives
- privacy officers
- legal counsels (both within pharma companies
and law firms servicing the pharmaceutical industry)
Return to top...
Description of Service
The VirSci State Privacy Monitor Service offers clients an effective tracking service that monitors all 50 state legislatures. The service identifies important privacy bills currently before state legislatures, performs a "triage" function to rank privacy bills according to their potential effect upon pharmaceutical marketing and research, and includes a monthly summary analysis and report.
The service employs a network of trained privacy monitors who employ a variety of techniques to keep track of legislatures in their regions. These techniques include use of the Web, contacts within state medical associations, press contacts, direct contact with committee clerks and state representatives. When appropriate and where possible, monitors will also attend public committee meetings and prepare highlights.
A clearinghouse service is also included in the VirSci State Privacy Monitor service. We collect information, tips, confidential communiqués, comments, etc. from various sources. Our clients have access to this information via a password-protected Web site.
Deliverables
The VirSci State Privacy Monitor service includes a monthly printed report delivered via postal mail and electronic versions delivered via email and via the Web via a password protected extranet. Each report includes a summary of privacy legislation status in each state plus an analysis of legislation of critical interest to our clients. One type of analysis is exemplified by a side-by-side comparison with HIPAA and other bellwether privacy regulations. See, for example, "TX SB 11 vs. HIPAA."
Source documents, such as text of bills,
legislative committee meeting notices and highlights, press
releases/articles, etc. are uploaded to the extranet site for access by
clients.
Return to top...
Frequently-Asked Questions
Q: Aren't there other services and publications that track state privacy laws? What is unique about the service you offer?
A: There are other services that may monitor state laws such as the Georgetown University Health Privacy Project's State Health Privacy Laws (2nd Edition, 2002). The problems with this type of service are:
- only laws already on the books are included, not bills working their way through state legislatures,
- the service is not up-to-date,
- it does not offer "real-time" service with e-mail updates on bill status, assembly and senate votes, etc. as they unfold, and
- most importantly, other services are not
intelligently focused on privacy issues and legislation of importance
to the pharmaceutical industry
Q: VirSci is not a law firm. Isn't it necessary to have legal experts perform this service?
A. VirSci does employ legal experts on our Privacy Advisory Board. However, hiring a law firm or lawyers to do this kind of monitoring, information retrieval, and pharma-privacy triage service would be cost-prohibitive. Our monitors are dedicated privacy experts with years of experience reading and understanding privacy legislation.
Our reports include copies of the official text of bills, sponsors' names and contact information, legislative status report, and preliminary analysis pointing out potential problem areas for pharmaceutical companies. Our service does not offer legal advice or lobbying strategies. Our monitors and analysts, however, work with legal experts who oversee the analyses and review the monthly reports.
We provide valuable resources and information that your legal counsel and public relations people will need to prepare legal briefs, testimony, and policy statements to meet your specific corporate goals.
Q: What experience does VirSci have tracking state privacy legislation and law?
The VirSci State Privacy Monitor Service described here is already being provided - on a limited basis - through our PHARMA PRIVACY NEWS (www.pharma-privacy.com) and Pharma Privacy Watch (www.pharmaprivacywatch.com) services.
Pharma Privacy Watch offers:
- Quarterly, in-depth Intelligence - analysis of privacy legislation, laws, and regulatory actions
- Comprehensive Source Data and References and web links to original documents
- In-depth coverage of presentations at major privacy conferences
- Optional monthly State Privacy Monitor
Available for download for a fee via a password-protected website. Review a Sample Report.
Subscribe to Pharma privacy Watch.
NOTE: This service does not offer the in-depth, real-time coverage of all 50 state legislatures as described above. For that, you need to order the State Privacy Monitor Service (see below).
The monthly PHARMA PRIVACY NEWS offers, via e-mail:
- FREE Executive Summaries from Pharma Privacy Watch
- FREE Highlights from Privacy Meetings & Conferences
- Other FREE pharma-related privacy news as it
happens
Review Past issues of PHARMA PRIVACY NEWS.
Return to top...
How to Order
For more information about VirSci's State Privacy Monitor Service, including cost quotes, please contact:
John Mack
P: 215-504-4164
F: 215-504-5739
johnmack@virsci.com
Return to top...
|
