I blogged last week on a Business Week story on the troubling ways that consumer prescription drug data are being used to invade consumer privacy. Today, the Washington Post has a front page story Prescription Data Used To Assess Consumers: Records Aid Insurers but Prompt Privacy Concerns by Ellen Nakashima:

While lawmakers debate how best to oversee the shift to computerized records, some insurers have already begun testing systems that tap into not only prescription drug information, but also data about patients held by clinical and pathological laboratories. Traditionally, insurance companies have judged an applicant's risk by gathering medical records from physicians' offices. But the new tools offer the advantage of being "electronic, fast and cheap," said Mark Franzen, managing director of Milliman IntelliScript, which provides consumers' personal drug profiles to insurers. The trend holds promise for improved health care and cost savings, but privacy and consumer advocates fear it is taking place largely outside the scrutiny of federal health regulators and lawmakers.