Senate Bill No. 306
(By Senators Kessler, Plymale and Hunter)
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[Introduced January 23, 2008; 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 and reenact §60A-9-5 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to allowing certain authorized
probation and parole officers access to information maintained
by the Board of Pharmacy.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §60A-9-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9. CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE MONITORING.
§60A-9-5. Confidentiality; limited access to records; period of
retention; no civil liability for required reporting.
(a) The information required by this article to be kept by the
State Board of Pharmacy is confidential and is open to inspection
only by the following persons:
(1) Inspectors and agents of the State Board of Pharmacy;
(2) Members of the West Virginia State Police expressly authorized by the Superintendent of the West Virginia State Police
to have access to the information;
(3) Authorized agents of local law-enforcement agencies as a
member of a drug task force;
(4) Authorized agents of the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration;
(5) Authorized probation officers employed by the Supreme
Court of Appeals;
(6) Authorized parole officers employed by the Division of
Corrections;
(7) duly authorized agents of the Bureau for Medical Services;
and
(8) The Workers' Compensation Commission;
(9) Duly authorized agents of licensing boards of
practitioners in this state and other states authorized to
prescribe Schedules II, III and IV controlled substances;
(10) Prescribing practitioners and pharmacists; and
(11) persons with an enforceable court order or regulatory
agency administrative subpoena. Provided That all
(b) Any information released by the State Board of Pharmacy
must be related to a specific patient or a specific individual or
entity on parole or under investigation or court-ordered
supervision by the party requesting the information by any of the
above parties except that practitioners who prescribe controlled substances may request specific data related to their Drug
Enforcement Administration controlled substance registration number
or for the purpose of providing treatment to a patient.
(c) The board shall maintain the information required by this
article for a period of not less than five years.
(d) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this code to the
contrary, data obtained under the provisions of this article may be
used for compilation of educational, scholarly or statistical
purposes as long as the identities of persons or entities remain
confidential.
(e) No individual or entity required to report under section
four of this article may be subject to a claim for civil damages or
other civil relief for the reporting of information to the Board of
Pharmacy as required under, and in accordance with, the provisions
of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize probation
officers employed by the Supreme Court of Appeals and parole
officers employed by the Division of Corrections to access certain
information maintained by the Board of Pharmacy.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.