Doctors Reject Proposal to Report Patients Who Use Meth to Officials

May 2–After intense debate during the weekend, the Oregon Medical Association declined to support a proposal for doctors to report methamphetamine-using patients to public health authorities.

Instead, association delegates asked an OMA committee to develop better guidelines for dealing with meth users, OMA spokesman Jim Kronenberg said Sunday after the group’s annual meeting at Sunriver.

Salem orthopedist and trauma surgeon Dr. Harold Boyd asked the group to consider a proposed state law that would require doctors to make such reports. Typically, ethics rules and federal privacy laws prevent doctors from revealing patients’ confidential medical data.

Boyd reasoned that a notification law — similar to existing laws that require doctors to report child abuse or people with communicable diseases — would lead to a more effective public health battle against the drug. Oregon’s population has the highest rate of treatment for meth addition in the United States.

But at the meeting, several doctors disagreed with Boyd’s approach, Kronenberg said. Some health officers said they did not know what they’d do with the information, he said. Other doctors said existing laws, such as those that require doctors to report child abuse, already deal with the problem.

Many doctors said patients won’t seek help for their addiction if they are afraid their doctors will report them, Kronenberg said.

“People who deal with addictive behaviors really didn’t think this was a good idea,” he said.

After the debate, the 99 voting delegates who attended the meeting did not vote on Boyd’s proposal, Kronenberg said. In a voice vote, they agreed to ask an OMA committee on community health to develop guidelines for doctors dealing with patients using meth.

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