IMS Health and Verispan recently secured a victory when a federal judge in New Hampshire ruled that a state law banning the commercial use of provider-identifiable information was unconstitutional. The health information companies jointly filed a suit to prevent the state from enforcing the statute. New Hampshire had been the only state to pass such a law.
It seemed like IMS and Verispan had a lot more supporters than detractors. Some of the entities that submitted Amicus Briefs in support of the companies were the Coalition for Healthcare Communication, the Washington Legal Foundation, the National Alliance for Health Information Technology, Surescripts, the eHealth Initiative, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and Wolters Kluwer Health. Perhaps that helped the judge in this case make the ruling he eventually did.
There's no question that the executives at both IMS and Verispan are relieved that this battle is over and they will be able to continue to do business as they always have. This serves as confirmation that the companies provide a valued service for the entire healthcare industry-physicians and patients.