H. B. 4633
(By Delegates Eldridge, Martin, Stowers,
Perdue, Butcher, Hall and Barker)
[Introduced February 22, 2010
; referred to the
Committee on Health and Human Resources then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §60A-9-5 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to permitting a medical services
provider under certain circumstances to inspect certain
confidential information concerning controlled substances that
is required to be kept by the State 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 SUBSTANCES MONITORING.
§60A-9-5. Confidentiality; limited access to records; period of
retention; no civil liability for required reporting.
The information required by this article to be kept by the
State Board of Pharmacy is confidential and is open to inspection
only by inspectors and agents of the State Board of Pharmacy,
members of the West Virginia State Police expressly authorized by
the superintendent of the West Virginia State Police to have access to the information, authorized agents of local law-enforcement
agencies as a member of a drug task force, authorized agents of the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration, duly authorized agents of
the Bureau for Medical Services and the Workers' Compensation
Commission,
physicians licensed to practice in the state who
prescribe or dispense more than a forty-eight hour dosage of a
Schedule II, III or IV controlled substance in an outpatient
setting, duly authorized agents of licensing boards of
practitioners in this state and other states authorized to
prescribe Schedules II, III and IV controlled substances,
prescribing practitioners and pharmacists and persons with an
enforceable court order or regulatory agency administrative
subpoena:
Provided, That all information released by the State
Board of Pharmacy must be related to a specific patient or a
specific individual or entity under investigation 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. The board
shall maintain the information required by this article for a
period of not less than five years. 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. 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 permit medical services
providers who prescribe or dispense more than a forty-eight hour
dosage of a Schedule II, III or IV controlled substance in an
outpatient setting to have access to inspect certain confidential
information on controlled substances that is required to be kept by
the State Board of Pharmacy.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.