2016 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 12 - Professions and Occupations
Health Care
Article 42.5 - Pharmacists, Pharmacy Businesses, and Pharmaceuticals
Part 4 - Electronic Monitoring of Prescription Drugs
§ 12-42.5-404. Program operation - access - rules

(1) The board shall operate and maintain the program.

(2) The board shall adopt all rules necessary to implement the program.

(3) The program is available for query only to the following persons or groups of persons:

(a) Board staff responsible for administering the program;

(b) Any practitioner with the statutory authority to prescribe controlled substances, or an individual designated by the practitioner to act on his or her behalf in accordance with section 12-42.5-403 (1.5) (b), to the extent the query relates to a current patient of the practitioner to whom the practitioner is prescribing or considering prescribing any controlled substance;

(c) A practitioner, or an individual designated by the practitioner to act on his or her behalf in accordance with section 12-42.5-403 (1.5) (b), engaged in a legitimate program to monitor a patient's drug abuse;

(c.5) The medical director, or his or her designee, at a facility that treats addiction with controlled substances, if an individual in treatment at the facility gives permission to the facility to access his or her program records;

(d) A pharmacist, an individual designated by a pharmacist in accordance with section 12-42.5-403 (1.5) (b) to act on his or her behalf, or a pharmacist licensed in another state, to the extent the information requested relates specifically to a current patient to whom the pharmacist is dispensing or considering dispensing a controlled substance or to whom the pharmacist is providing clinical patient care services;

(e) Law enforcement officials so long as the information released is specific to an individual patient, pharmacy, or practitioner and is part of a bona fide investigation, and the request for information is accompanied by an official court order or subpoena;

(f) The individual who is the recipient of a controlled substance prescription so long as the information released is specific to the individual;

(g) State regulatory boards within the division and the director of the division so long as the information released is specific to an individual practitioner and is part of a bona fide investigation, and the request for information is accompanied by an official court order or subpoena;

(h) A resident physician with an active physician training license issued by the Colorado medical board pursuant to section 12-36-122 and under the supervision of a licensed physician.

(i) The department of public health and environment for purposes of population-level analysis, but any use of program data by the department is subject to the federal "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996", Pub.L. 104-191, as amended, and implementing federal regulations, including the requirement to remove any identifying data unless exempted from the requirement.

(4) The board shall not charge a practitioner or pharmacy who transmits data in compliance with the operation and maintenance of the program a fee for the transmission of the data.

(5) The board, the department of public health and environment, or the department of health care policy and financing, pursuant to a written agreement that ensures compliance with this part 4, may provide data to qualified personnel of a public or private entity for the purpose of bona fide research or education so long as the data does not identify a recipient of, a practitioner who prescribed, or a prescription drug outlet that dispensed, a prescription drug.

(6) The board shall provide a means of sharing information about individuals whose information is recorded in the program with out-of-state health care practitioners and law enforcement officials that meet the requirements of paragraph (b), (c), or (e) of subsection (3) of this section.

(7) The board shall develop criteria for indicators of misuse, abuse, and diversion of controlled substances and, based on those criteria, provide unsolicited reports of dispensed controlled substances to prescribing practitioners and dispensing pharmacies for purposes of education and intervention to prevent and reduce occurrences of controlled substance misuse, abuse, and diversion. In developing the criteria, the board shall consult with the Colorado dental board, Colorado medical board, state board of nursing, state board of optometry, Colorado podiatry board, and state board of veterinary medicine.