Section 11165.1.

(a) (1) A licensed health care practitioner eligible to prescribe Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substances or a pharmacist may provide a notarized application developed by the Department of Justice to obtain approval to access information stored on the Internet regarding the controlled substance history of a patient maintained within the Department of Justice, and the department may release to that practitioner or pharmacist, 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).

(A) 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 for a subscriber.

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

(iii) Suspended or revoked federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration.

(iv) Any subscriber who is arrested for a violation of 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) Any subscriber accessing information for any other reason than caring for his or her patients.

(B) Any authorized subscriber shall notify the Department of Justice within 10 days of any changes to the subscriber account.

(2) To allow sufficient time for licensed health care practitioners eligible to prescribe Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substances and a pharmacist to apply and receive access to PDMP, a written request may be made, until July 1, 2012, and the Department of Justice may release to that practitioner or pharmacist the history of controlled substances dispensed to an individual under his or her care based on data contained in CURES.

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

(c) In order to prevent the inappropriate, improper, or illegal use of Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substances, the Department of Justice 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 of Justice pursuant to this section shall be considered 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 prescriber or pharmacist pursuant to this section shall include prescriptions for controlled substances listed in Sections 1308.12, 1308.13, and 1308.14 o.

(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 418, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 2012.)