Professor Sharona Hoffman was quoted in the New York Times on March 5, 2025, in an article entitled “Florida Seeks Drug Prescription Data With Names of Patients and Doctors.” She commented on an unusual demand by The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, seeking data on millions of 2024 drug prescriptions. The data at issue included the names of patients, their dates of birth and the prescribing doctors.
Professor Hoffman warned that the data request raises serious privacy concerns. “You don’t need such granular patient information for [insurance] oversight,” she said. She noted that responses to such requests could provide the government with detailed information about individuals’ reproductive, transgender and mental health care. The full article is available here.