SB 534 Text

Senate Bill No. 534
(By Senators Kessler, Barnes, Laird, Browning, Minard and Chafin)
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[Introduced February 10, 2010; referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §60A-4-410a, relating to mandating practitioners to report suspected prescription fraud involving controlled substances to law- enforcement agencies; penalty; and immunity.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §60A-4-410a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. OFFENSES AND PENALTIES.

§60A-4-410a. Practitioners mandated to report prescription fraud to law-enforcement agencies; penalty; immunity.

(a) Any practitioner, who has reasonable cause to suspect that a patient has used misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or
subterfuge to acquire or obtain a prescription for a controlled substance or has withheld information from a practitioner that the patient has obtained a prescription for a controlled substance of
a similar therapeutic use in a concurrent time period from another
practitioner, shall report said patient to the State Police or any
1aw-enforcement agency having jurisdiction to investigate the complaint.
(b) Any practitioner who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, may be fined not more than one thousand dollars.
(c) Any practitioner participating in good faith in any act permitted or required by this section shall be immune from any civil or criminal liability, or any professional disciplinary action taken against the practitioner that otherwise might result
by reason of such action.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to mandate that practitioners report suspected prescription fraud involving controlled substances to law-enforcement agencies.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.

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