Bredesen Wants to Give Law Enforcement Access to Databases

Governor Phil Bredesen says he wants to give the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation access a state-wide prescription drug database, in an effort to curb fraud.

The T-B-I requested the access during its budget hearing with the governor yesterday. In a later hearing for the finance department, the governor asked the finance commissioner, who started the database project, to work towards coordinating information.

“I would like to, and I’ve already talked to our legislative team to see if there isn’t some way we can move that a little bit forward this year in the sense of not giving general law enforcement access to the medical portion of the medical records of people in the state. But where there is probable cause, and where there are specifically used drugs and the like, there’s a way to coordinate among the various agencies.”

TBI Director Mark Gwyn told Bredesen that his department needs more power to investigate prescription drug crimes. Bredesen said the problem is out of hand and attention should be focused on doctors who are writing illegitimate prescriptions.

The Office of Inspector General, which investigates possible fraud cases in TennCare, has arrested 583 people since its creation in 2004, mostly for prescription drug violations.