The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, regulates how health information is used and exchanged among “covered entities” such as hospitals and doctor’s offices. But the law gives pharmacies leeway as to what legal standard they require before disclosing medical records to law enforcement.
See, generally, https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq/505/what-doe... and the regulations cited therein.
I'm not seeing anything that explicitly calls out Pharmacies.
The police are breaking federal law and the article is wrong. This is not a gray area.
In briefings, officials with America’s eight biggest pharmacy giants — Walgreens Boots Alliance, CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid, Kroger, Cigna, Optum Rx and Amazon Pharmacy — told congressional investigators that they required only a subpoena, not a warrant, to share the records.
And in the link you provided:
When might it be permitted for a pharmacy to disclose PHI to law enforcement officers?
Bearing in mind that, once in a designated record set, PHI could be an individual´s name or physical description, a pharmacy (or pharmacy staff) is permitted to – but not required to – disclose PHI to law enforcement officers in the following six circumstances:
as required by law (including court orders, court-ordered warrants, subpoenas) and administrative requests
In this case, the leeway in the standard here is what the pharmacy chooses to comply with. They are choosing to comply with subpoenas. This article points out how that standard could be higher (warrants).
I really don't want to keep googling things for you. The police are not judicial officers. Yes, I've read the article.