Bill Text: CA AB1752 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 1752 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Controlled substances: CURES database.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2018-08-16 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB1752 Detail]

Download: California-2017-AB1752-Amended.html

Amended IN Senate June 20, 2018

Amended IN Assembly April 05, 2018

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1752

Introduced by Assembly Member Low

January 03, 2018

An act to amend Sections 11165 and 11165.1 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to controlled substances.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1752, as amended, Low. Controlled substances: CURES database.

Existing law classifies certain controlled substances into designated schedules. Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) for the electronic monitoring of the prescribing and dispensing of Schedule II, Schedule III, and Schedule IV controlled substances by a health care practitioner authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense a Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substance. Existing law requires a dispensing pharmacy, clinic, or other dispenser to report specified information to the Department of Justice as soon as reasonably possible, but not more than 7 days after the date a controlled substance is dispensed.

This bill would add Schedule V controlled substances to the CURES database. The bill would require a dispensing pharmacy, clinic, or other dispenser to report the information required by the CURES database no more than one working day after a controlled substance is dispensed. The bill would ~~change what information is required to be reported by deleting references to classification codes and adding the date of sale of the prescription.~~ additionally require the date of sale of the prescription, if applicable, to be reported.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 11165 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

11165.

(a) To assist health care practitioners in their efforts to ensure appropriate prescribing, ordering, administering, furnishing, and dispensing of controlled substances, law enforcement and regulatory agencies in their efforts to control the diversion and resultant abuse of Schedule II, Schedule III, Schedule IV, and Schedule V controlled substances, and for statistical analysis, education, and research, the Department of Justice shall, contingent upon the availability of adequate funds in the CURES Fund, maintain the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) for the electronic monitoring of, and Internet access to information regarding, the prescribing and dispensing of Schedule II, Schedule III, Schedule IV, and Schedule V controlled substances by all practitioners authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense these controlled substances.

(b) The Department of Justice may seek and use grant funds to pay the costs incurred by the operation and maintenance of CURES. The department shall annually report to the Legislature and make available to the public the amount and source of funds it receives for support of CURES.

(c) (1) The operation of CURES shall comply with all applicable federal and state privacy and security laws and regulations.

(2) (A) CURES shall operate under existing provisions of law to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of patients. Data obtained from CURES shall only be provided to appropriate state, local, and federal public agencies for disciplinary, civil, or criminal purposes and to other agencies or entities, as determined by the Department of Justice, for the purpose of educating practitioners and others in lieu of disciplinary, civil, or criminal actions. Data may be provided to public or private entities, as approved by the Department of Justice, for educational, peer review, statistical, or research purposes, provided that patient information, including any information that may identify the patient, is not compromised. Further, data disclosed to any individual or agency as described in this subdivision shall not be disclosed, sold, or transferred to any third party, unless authorized by, or pursuant to, state and federal privacy and security laws and regulations. The Department of Justice shall establish policies, procedures, and regulations regarding the use, access, evaluation, management, implementation, operation, storage, disclosure, and security of the information within CURES, consistent with this subdivision.

(B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), a regulatory board whose licensees do not prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense controlled substances shall not be provided data obtained from CURES.

(3) In accordance with federal and state privacy laws and regulations, a health care practitioner may provide a patient with a copy of the patient’s CURES patient activity report as long as no additional CURES data is provided and keep a copy of the report in the patient’s medical record in compliance with subdivision (d) of Section 11165.1.

(d) For each prescription for a Schedule II, Schedule III, Schedule IV, or Schedule V controlled substance, as defined in the controlled substances schedules in federal law and regulations, specifically Sections 1308.12, 1308.13, 1308.14, and 1308.15, respectively, of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the dispensing pharmacy, clinic, or other dispenser shall report the following information to the Department of Justice as soon as reasonably possible, but not more than one working day after the date a controlled substance is dispensed, in a format specified by the Department of Justice:

(1) Full name, address, and, if available, telephone number of the ultimate user or research subject, or contact information as determined by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and the gender, and date of birth of the ultimate user.

(2) The prescriber’s category of licensure, license number, national provider identifier (NPI) number, if applicable, the federal controlled substance registration number, and the state medical license number of any prescriber using the federal controlled substance registration number of a government-exempt facility.

(3) Pharmacy prescription number, license number, NPI number, and federal controlled substance registration number.

(4) National Drug Code (NDC) number of the controlled substance dispensed.

(5) Quantity of the controlled substance dispensed.

(6) International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 9th revision (ICD-9) or 10th revision (ICD-10) Code, if available.
~~(6)~~

(7) Number of refills ordered.

~~(7)~~

(8) Whether the drug was dispensed as a refill of a prescription or as a first-time request.

~~(8)~~

(9) Date of origin of the prescription.

~~(9)~~

(10) Date of dispensing of the prescription.

~~(10)~~

(11) Date of sale of the ~~prescription.~~ prescription, if applicable.

(e) The Department of Justice may invite stakeholders to assist, advise, and make recommendations on the establishment of rules and regulations necessary to ensure the proper administration and enforcement of the CURES database. All prescriber and dispenser invitees shall be licensed by one of the boards or committees identified in subdivision (d) of Section 208 of the Business and Professions Code, in active practice in California, and a regular user of CURES.

(f) The Department of Justice shall, prior to upgrading CURES, consult with prescribers licensed by one of the boards or committees identified in subdivision (d) of Section 208 of the Business and Professions Code, one or more of the boards or committees identified in subdivision (d) of Section 208 of the Business and Professions Code, and any other stakeholder identified by the department, for the purpose of identifying desirable capabilities and upgrades to the CURES Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP).

(g) The Department of Justice may establish a process to educate authorized subscribers of the CURES PDMP on how to access and use the CURES PDMP.

SEC. 2.

Section 11165.1 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

11165.1.

(a) (1) (A) (i) A health care practitioner authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense Schedule II, Schedule III, Schedule IV, or Schedule V controlled substances pursuant to Section 11150 shall, before July 1, 2016, or upon receipt of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration, whichever occurs later, submit an application developed by the department to obtain approval to electronically access information regarding the controlled substance history of a patient that is maintained by the department. Upon approval, the department shall release to that practitioner the electronic history of controlled substances dispensed to an individual under his or her care based on data contained in the CURES Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP).

(ii) A pharmacist shall, before July 1, 2016, or upon licensure, whichever occurs later, submit an application developed by the department to obtain approval to electronically access information regarding the controlled substance history of a patient that is maintained by the department. Upon approval, the department shall release to that pharmacist the electronic history of controlled substances dispensed to an individual under his or her care based on data contained in the CURES PDMP.

(B) An application may be denied, or a subscriber may be suspended, for reasons which include, but are not limited to, the following:

(i) Materially falsifying an application to access information contained in the CURES database.

(ii) Failing to maintain effective controls for access to the patient activity report.

(iii) Having his or her federal DEA registration suspended or revoked.

(iv) Violating a law governing controlled substances or any other law for which the possession or use of a controlled substance is an element of the crime.

(v) Accessing information for a reason other than to diagnose or treat his or her patients, or to document compliance with the law.

(D) Commencing no later than October 1, 2018, an approved health care practitioner, pharmacist, and any person acting on behalf of a health care practitioner or pharmacist pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 209 of the Business and Professions Code may use the department’s online portal or a health information technology system that meets the criteria required in subparagraph (E) to access information in the CURES database pursuant to this section. A subscriber who uses a health information technology system that meets the criteria required in subparagraph (E) to access the CURES database may submit automated queries to the CURES database that are triggered by predetermined criteria.

(E) Commencing no later than October 1, 2018, an approved health care practitioner or pharmacist may submit queries to the CURES database through a health information technology system if the entity that operates the health information technology system can certify all of the following:

(i) The entity will not use or disclose data received from the CURES database for any purpose other than delivering the data to an approved health care practitioner or pharmacist or performing data processing activities that may be necessary to enable the delivery unless authorized by, and pursuant to, state and federal privacy and security laws and regulations.

(ii) The health information technology system will authenticate the identity of an authorized health care practitioner or pharmacist initiating queries to the CURES database and, at the time of the query to the CURES database, the health information technology system submits the following data regarding the query to CURES:

(I) The date of the query.

(II) The time of the query.

(III) The first and last name of the patient queried.

(IV) The date of birth of the patient queried.

(V) The identification of the CURES user for whom the system is making the query.

(iii) The health information technology system meets applicable patient privacy and information security requirements of state and federal law.

(iv) The entity has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the department that solely addresses the technical specifications of the health information technology system to ensure the security of the data in the CURES database and the secure transfer of data from the CURES database. The technical specifications shall be universal for all health information technology systems that establish a method of system integration to retrieve information from the CURES database. The memorandum of understanding shall not govern, or in any way impact or restrict, the use of data received from the CURES database or impose any additional burdens on covered entities in compliance with the regulations promulgated pursuant to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 found in Parts 160 and 164 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

(F) No later than October 1, 2018, the department shall develop a programming interface or other method of system integration to allow health information technology systems that meet the requirements in subparagraph (E) to retrieve information in the CURES database on behalf of an authorized health care practitioner or pharmacist.

(G) The department shall not access patient-identifiable information in an entity’s health information technology system.

(H) An entity that operates a health information technology system that is requesting to establish an integration with the CURES database shall pay a reasonable fee to cover the cost of establishing and maintaining integration with the CURES database.

(I) The department may prohibit integration or terminate a health information technology system’s ability to retrieve information in the CURES database if the health information technology system fails to meet the requirements of subparagraph (E), or the entity operating the health information technology system does not fulfill its obligation under subparagraph (H).

(2) A health care practitioner authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense Schedule II, Schedule III, Schedule IV, or Schedule V controlled substances pursuant to Section 11150 or a pharmacist shall be deemed to have complied with paragraph (1) if the licensed health care practitioner or pharmacist has been approved to access the CURES database through the process developed pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 209 of the Business and Professions Code.

(b) A request for, or release of, a controlled substance history pursuant to this section shall be made in accordance with guidelines developed by the department.

(c) In order to prevent the inappropriate, improper, or illegal use of Schedule II, Schedule III, Schedule IV, or Schedule V controlled substances, the department may initiate the referral of the history of controlled substances dispensed to an individual based on data contained in CURES to licensed health care practitioners, pharmacists, or both, providing care or services to the individual.

(d) The history of controlled substances dispensed to an individual based on data contained in CURES that is received by a practitioner or pharmacist from the department pursuant to this section is medical information subject to the provisions of the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act contained in Part 2.6 (commencing with Section 56) of Division 1 of the Civil Code.

(e) Information concerning a patient’s controlled substance history provided to a practitioner or pharmacist pursuant to this section shall include prescriptions for controlled substances listed in Sections 1308.12, 1308.13, 1308.14, and 1308.15 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

(f) A health care practitioner, pharmacist, and any person acting on behalf of a health care practitioner or pharmacist, when acting with reasonable care and in good faith, is not subject to civil or administrative liability arising from any false, incomplete, inaccurate, or misattributed information submitted to, reported by, or relied upon in the CURES database or for any resulting failure of the CURES database to accurately or timely report that information.

(g) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

(1) “Automated basis” means using predefined criteria to trigger an automated query to the CURES database, which can be attributed to a specific health care practitioner or pharmacist.

(2) “Department” means the Department of Justice.

(3) “Entity” means an organization that operates, or provides or makes available, a health information technology system to a health care practitioner or pharmacist.

(4) “Health information technology system” means an information processing application using hardware and software for the storage, retrieval, sharing of or use of patient data for communication, decisionmaking, coordination of care, or the quality, safety, or efficiency of the practice of medicine or delivery of health care services, including, but not limited to, electronic medical record applications, health information exchange systems, or other interoperable clinical or health care information system.

(5) “User-initiated basis” means an authorized health care practitioner or pharmacist has taken an action to initiate the query to the CURES database, such as clicking a button, issuing a voice command, or taking some other action that can be attributed to a specific health care practitioner or pharmacist.