BILL NUMBER: AB 679 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 18, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 25, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 18, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 20, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 26, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Travis Allen
FEBRUARY 25, 2015
An act to amend Section 27320 of the Government Code,
relating to local government. An act to amend Section
11165.1 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to controlled
substances, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take
effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 679, as amended, Travis Allen. Documents: recordation.
Controlled substances.
Existing law classifies certain controlled substances into
designated schedules. Existing law requires the Department of Justice
to maintain the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and
Evaluation System (CURES) for the electronic monitoring of the
prescribing and dispensing of Schedule II, Schedule III, and Schedule
IV controlled substances by all practitioners authorized to
prescribe or dispense these controlled substances. Existing law
authorizes the Department of Justice to provide the history of
controlled substances dispensed to an individual to a licensed health
care practitioner, pharmacist, or both, providing care or services
to the individual. By January 1, 2016, or upon licensure in the case
of a pharmacist, or upon receipt of a federal Drug Enforcement
Administration registration in the case of another health care
practitioner authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or
dispense controlled substances, whichever respective event occurs
later, existing law requires those persons to apply to the Department
of Justice to obtain approval to access information contained in the
CURES database regarding the controlled substance history of a
patient under his or her care.
This bill would extend those January 1, 2016, deadlines to July 1,
2016.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the recorder of each county, upon payment of
proper fees and taxes, to accept for recordation any instrument,
paper, or notice that is authorized or required by law to be
recorded. Existing law further requires the recorder, when any
instrument authorized by law to be recorded is deposited in the
recorder's office for record, to endorse upon the instrument in the
order in which it is deposited, the year, month, day, hour, and
minute of its reception, the amount of fees recording, and the name
of the person at whose request it is recorded.
This bill would delete the requirement that the recorder endorse
the name of the person at whose request an instrument is recorded and
would additionally require the recorder to endorse upon the
instrument the number of pages of the instrument.
By imposing new duties upon the county recorder, this bill would
impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority 2/3 . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes
no .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 11165.1 of the
Health and Safety Code is amended to read:
11165.1. (a) (1) (A) (i) A health care practitioner authorized to
prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense Schedule II,
Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substances pursuant to
Section 11150 shall, before January July
1, 2016, or upon receipt of a federal Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) registration, whichever occurs later, submit an
application developed by the Department of Justice to obtain approval
to access information online regarding the controlled substance
history of a patient that is stored on the Internet and maintained
within the Department of Justice, and, upon approval, the department
shall release to that practitioner 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).
(ii) A pharmacist shall, before January
July 1, 2016, or upon licensure, whichever occurs later, submit
an application developed by the Department of Justice to obtain
approval to access information online regarding the controlled
substance history of a patient that is stored on the Internet and
maintained within the Department of Justice, and, upon approval, the
department shall release to that pharmacist the electronic history of
controlled substances dispensed to an individual under his or her
care based on data contained in the CURES PDMP.
(B) 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 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.
(C) Any authorized subscriber shall notify the Department of
Justice within 30 days of any changes to the subscriber account.
(2) A health care practitioner authorized to prescribe, order,
administer, furnish, or dispense Schedule II, Schedule III, or
Schedule IV controlled substances pursuant to Section 11150 or a
pharmacist shall be deemed to have complied with paragraph (1) if the
licensed health care practitioner or pharmacist has been approved to
access the CURES database through the process developed pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 209 of the Business and Professions Code.
(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 of Title 21 of the Code of
Federal Regulations.
SEC. 2. This act is an urgency statute necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to ensure that health care practitioners and pharmacists
are not out of compliance with the requirement to apply to access
data contained in the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and
Evaluation System Prescription Drug Monitoring Program on January 1,
2016, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.
SECTION 1. Section 27320 of the Government Code
is amended to read:
27320. When any instrument authorized by law to be recorded is
deposited in the recorder's office for record, the recorder shall
endorse upon it in the order in which it is deposited, the year,
month, day, hour, and minute of its reception, its number of pages,
and the amount of fees for recording. The recorder shall record it
without delay, together with the acknowledgments, proofs,
certificates, and prior recording data written upon or annexed to it,
with the plats, surveys, schedules, and other papers thereto
annexed, and shall note on the record its identification number.
Efforts shall be made to assign identification numbers sequentially,
but an assignment of a nonsequential number may be made if not in
violation of express recording instructions regarding a group of
concurrently recorded instruments and if, in the discretion of the
county recorder, such assignment best serves the interest of
expeditious recording.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this
act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because a local agency or school district has the
authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to
pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within
the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.