BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 360 (DeSaulnier)
Hearing Date: 05/26/2011 Amended: 05/10/2011
Consultant: Jolie Onodera Policy Vote: Public Safety 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 360 would:
1) Establish the CURES Prescription Drug Monitoring
Program (PDMP) to allow controlled substance subscribers
and pharmacists to have Internet access to the controlled
substance prescription history of persons under their
care, as specified;
2) Authorize the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
establish, by regulations, a system for the issuance of
citations for violations of the CURES PDMP;
3) Expand the requirements imposed on security printer
applicants for prescription forms for controlled
substance prescriptions, and establish fines for
violations of security printer guidelines.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Funds
Regulation development Unknown; significant costs in theGeneral
and establishment of hundreds of thousands; future
offsetSpecial*
system for regulation of in whole or in part by
fine/fee revenue
PDMP access
Expanded security printer Unknown, enforcement costs
fully Special*
requirements and fines offset by fee/fine revenue
PDMP maintenance Potential minor cost pressure to
Special**
contracts existing contracts
*CURES Program Special Fund
**Contingent Fund of Medical Board, Pharmacy Board Contingent
Fund, State Dentistry Fund, Board of Registered Nursing Fund,
Osteopathic Medical Board Contingent Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
Existing law includes the Controlled Substance Utilization
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Review and Evaluation System (CURES) of electronic monitoring of
Schedule II, III and IV controlled substance prescriptions. The
CURES provides for the electronic transmission of Schedule II,
III and IV prescription data to the DOJ at the time
prescriptions are dispensed. Existing law states that the
purpose of CURES is to assist law enforcement and regulatory
agencies in controlling diversion and abuse of Schedule II, III
and IV controlled substances and for statistical analysis,
education and research.
This bill establishes the PDMP that will allow any practitioner
licensed to prescribe Schedules II through IV controlled
substances or pharmacist, upon an approved application, to
access using the Internet, the electronic history of controlled
substances dispensed to an individual under his or her care
based on data contained in CURES. Currently, a licensed health
care practitioner or a pharmacist may make a written request to
the DOJ for the history of controlled substances dispensed to an
individual based on the data in CURES and be provided that
information from DOJ. This bill allows, until July 12, 2012, a
practitioner or pharmacist to make a written request for
controlled substance history information about a person under
the care of the practitioner or pharmacist, in order to provide
sufficient time for subscribers to apply for access to PDMP.
Under existing law, to assist with maintenance of the CURES, the
DOJ has short-term contracts with the Medical Board of
California ($150,000), the Board of Pharmacy ($92,000), the
Board of Registered Nursing ($10,000), the State Dentistry Board
($40,000) and the Osteopathic Medical Board ($4,000). This bill
adds the maintenance of Internet access to CURES data to the
provisions under which contingent from funds from each of these
entities may be funded. The Medical Board and Board and Pharmacy
indicate they do not anticipate a change to the annual cost of
the existing contracts, and any future cost pressure on these
contracts is expected to be minor.
This bill authorizes the DOJ to establish regulations for a
system to issue citations for unauthorized use of the CURES data
by subscribers with PDMP access, and provides for orders or
abatement, fines of up to $2,500 per violation, and a hearing
process if a subscriber is in violation of the CURES-PDMP
statutes or corresponding regulations. This bill would also
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create the CURES Program Special Fund into which administrative
fines will be deposited. These funds shall be available upon
appropriation by the Legislature and will provide support for
costs associated with informal and formal hearings, maintenance,
and updates to the PDMP. The initial costs to develop
regulations, as well as to implement the fine collection and
hearings process could be in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Costs are expected to be reimbursed, though subsequent
to when expenditures are incurred, through funds made available
in the CURES Program Special Fund. To the extent expenditures
exceed funds collected and available from the fund would result
in cost pressure on the General Fund.
This bill provides for additional requirements on security
printers and authorizes the fees assessed against each security
printer be sufficient to cover all processing, maintenance, and
investigative costs generated from background checks and
inspection of security printers. The bill also requires the DOJ
to impose sanctions on security printers who violate applicable
statutes and regulations, as specified. Security printer
violations would be subject to various fines as specified in the
bill. Fines and fees collected would be deposited in the CURES
Program Special Fund established pursuant to the provisions of
this bill as noted above and would be utilized to offset the
full costs of enforcement of these new security printer
requirements.