Hospital emergency departments also keep lists of those whom they consider to exhibit "drug seeking behavior", and they share that list with all the other ERs in the area. At least, this was the policy when I last worked in late '95, and perhaps there have been some privacy laws enacted to prevent that, since that time. That was also in Washington state, where I no longer live. In the state I now live in, I've been hospitalized three times in the past year, and each time I've been asked my entire history in the ER, as well as for my list of allergies. When we (again) told them that it was all contained in my old records, a nurse told us that it was "against the law" to access our old records. Huh? Will have to check the laws, but this nurse also got herself fired because she attempted to inject me with a medication which I adamantly refused to accept because I have an extremely adverse reaction to it (Reglan), and she attempted to keep my SO from returning to the room to be with me (I was in shock and could not properly respond to questions).

At any rate, just wanted to reiterate that lists are kept, and doctors, pharmacies, and ER's do access those lists (whether they are strictly legal or not). Be careful.