Fenton Jurkowitz Law Group has filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court in Lewis v. The Superior Court of the State of California.
The issues in Lewis pertain to whether the Medical Board of California is permitted, pursuant to the federal Fourth Amendment, to conduct warrantless and unfettered searches of records of prescriptions for both controlled and noncontrolled substances, initiated by the state’s computerized Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (“CURES”) and followed up by general pharmacy audits, regardless of the nature of the patient complaint(s) involved.
During an investigation of a patient’s complaint regarding Dr. Lewis’ “unhealthful” diet plan, the Medical Board obtained Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System reports that concluded he had over-prescribed controlled substances to two of his other patients. Receiving only a three year probation for record keeping violations (not over-prescribing), Dr. Lewis seeks to appeal the decision, asserting that there was no reason to review the reports on other patients, and that it was a violation of the patients’ constitutional right to privacy. The position of Dr. Lewis and Fenton Jurkowitz Law Group has received outside support from the American Medical Association.
The re-examination of this case by the U.S. Supreme Court will hopefully shed light on violations of Dr. Lewis’ and his patients’ rights to privacy.