Trustees to examine sale of Masterfile info

The selling of physicians' personal data is the subject of an inquiry into the AMA Masterfile.

By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. July 9/16, 2001.

Chicago -- Delegates to the AMA's Annual Meeting directed the Board of Trustees to study the Association's practice of selling physicians' personal data and to report its findings at the Interim Meeting later this year.

The practice, which generates $23 million in revenue a year, was the subject of a resolution from the California delegation.

Delegates argued that the Masterfile was not secure and that the AMA should take steps to protect it. They were concerned that hackers could break into and alter the database, making it easy for physicians' identities to be stolen and for fraud to be committed against them.

The resolution also would have required the AMA to obtain physicians' permission before selling physicians' confidential data. The database includes physicians' Social Security and DEA numbers, home and office addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates and medical schools they graduated from.

"I don't want you to sell my DEA number and I don't want you to sell my profile without my permission," said Larry Bedard, MD, an alternate delegate from the American College of Emergency Physicians from California. "[I]f you're going to do it, you ought to indemnify me or any other physician for any economic damage that they incur from selling their personal data."

But New York delegate Mark Fox, MD, an otolaryngologist, noted that other companies sell similar information and that it would be "a great loss for the members of the AMA" if the AMA could not sell its data. "Twenty-three million dollars is not small change. We'd prefer that the AMA have the money," Dr. Fox said.

The AMA disputed that the Masterfile was not secure. It had no evidence that the database had been breached or that its information had been used to steal physicians' identities, said AMA Trustee Donald Palmisano, MD.

With the exception of their address, e-mail address and telephone numbers, when physicians contact the AMA about changing their personal data, the AMA will verify the changes with a primary source, said AMA Trustee Thomas Reardon, MD.

Physicians also can opt out of the database and limit what information the AMA sells, Dr. Reardon said. In an attempt to alleviate some of the concerns of the California Medical Assn., which says it sells physician data for mailing purposes only, the AMA will continue to collect but not sell Social Security numbers, he said. But additional restrictions would hurt the Association financially, forcing it to eliminate advocacy and educational programs important to physicians.

The Masterfile also helps physicians because it's used for physician credentialing. Marketers also use it to better target advertising material to them, Dr. Reardon said.