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Full Text of SB3024  102nd General Assembly

SB3024 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

  
  

 


 
102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2021 and 2022
SB3024

 

Introduced 1/5/2022, by Sen. Melinda Bush

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
720 ILCS 570/318

    Amends the Illinois Controlled Substances Act. Provides that in accordance with an agreement entered into with the Department of Human Services, an authorized employee of a county or municipal health department or the Department of Public Health shall have access to data from the prescription inquiry system for any of the following purposes: (1) developing education programs or public health interventions relating to specific prescribing practices, controlled substances and the prevention of fraud and abuse; or (2) conducting analyses and publish reports on prescribing trends in their respective jurisdictions. Provides that analyses and reports must not include information that identifies, by name, license, or address, any practitioner, dispenser, ultimate user, or other person administering a controlled substance. Provides that any county or municipal health department accessing data from the system shall implement appropriate technical and physical safeguards to ensure the privacy and security of data obtained from the system.


LRB102 22161 RLC 31290 b

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

SB3024LRB102 22161 RLC 31290 b

1    AN ACT concerning criminal law.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The Illinois Controlled Substances Act is
5amended by changing Section 318 as follows:
 
6    (720 ILCS 570/318)
7    Sec. 318. Confidentiality of information.
8    (a) Information received by the central repository under
9Section 316 and former Section 321 is confidential.
10    (a-1) To ensure the federal Health Insurance Portability
11and Accountability Act privacy of an individual's prescription
12data reported to the Prescription Monitoring Program received
13from a retail dispenser under this Act, and in order to execute
14the duties and responsibilities under Section 316 of this Act
15and rules for disclosure under this Section, the Clinical
16Director of the Prescription Monitoring Program or his or her
17designee shall maintain direct access to all Prescription
18Monitoring Program data. Any request for Prescription
19Monitoring Program data from any other department or agency
20must be approved in writing by the Clinical Director of the
21Prescription Monitoring Program or his or her designee unless
22otherwise permitted by law. Prescription Monitoring Program
23data shall only be disclosed as permitted by law.

 

 

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1    (a-2) As an active step to address the current opioid
2crisis in this State and to prevent and reduce addiction
3resulting from a sports injury or an accident, the
4Prescription Monitoring Program and the Department of Public
5Health shall coordinate a continuous review of the
6Prescription Monitoring Program and the Department of Public
7Health data to determine if a patient may be at risk of opioid
8addiction. Each patient discharged from any medical facility
9with an International Classification of Disease, 10th edition
10code related to a sport or accident injury shall be subject to
11the data review. If the discharged patient is dispensed a
12controlled substance, the Prescription Monitoring Program
13shall alert the patient's prescriber as to the addiction risk
14and urge each to follow the Centers for Disease Control and
15Prevention guidelines or his or her respective profession's
16treatment guidelines related to the patient's injury. This
17subsection (a-2), other than this sentence, is inoperative on
18or after January 1, 2024.
19    (b) The Department must carry out a program to protect the
20confidentiality of the information described in subsection
21(a). The Department may disclose the information to another
22person only under subsection (c), (d), or (f) and may charge a
23fee not to exceed the actual cost of furnishing the
24information.
25    (c) The Department may disclose confidential information
26described in subsection (a) to any person who is engaged in

 

 

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1receiving, processing, or storing the information.
2    (d) The Department may release confidential information
3described in subsection (a) to the following persons:
4        (1) A governing body that licenses practitioners and
5    is engaged in an investigation, an adjudication, or a
6    prosecution of a violation under any State or federal law
7    that involves a controlled substance.
8        (2) An investigator for the Consumer Protection
9    Division of the office of the Attorney General, a
10    prosecuting attorney, the Attorney General, a deputy
11    Attorney General, or an investigator from the office of
12    the Attorney General, who is engaged in any of the
13    following activities involving controlled substances:
14            (A) an investigation;
15            (B) an adjudication; or
16            (C) a prosecution of a violation under any State
17        or federal law that involves a controlled substance.
18        (3) A law enforcement officer who is:
19            (A) authorized by the Illinois State Police or the
20        office of a county sheriff or State's Attorney or
21        municipal police department of Illinois to receive
22        information of the type requested for the purpose of
23        investigations involving controlled substances; or
24            (B) approved by the Department to receive
25        information of the type requested for the purpose of
26        investigations involving controlled substances; and

 

 

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1            (C) engaged in the investigation or prosecution of
2        a violation under any State or federal law that
3        involves a controlled substance.
4        (4) Select representatives of the Department of
5    Children and Family Services through the indirect online
6    request process. Access shall be established by an
7    intergovernmental agreement between the Department of
8    Children and Family Services and the Department of Human
9    Services.
10    (e) Before the Department releases confidential
11information under subsection (d), the applicant must
12demonstrate in writing to the Department that:
13        (1) the applicant has reason to believe that a
14    violation under any State or federal law that involves a
15    controlled substance has occurred; and
16        (2) the requested information is reasonably related to
17    the investigation, adjudication, or prosecution of the
18    violation described in subdivision (1).
19    (f) The Department may receive and release prescription
20record information under Section 316 and former Section 321
21to:
22        (1) a governing body that licenses practitioners;
23        (2) an investigator for the Consumer Protection
24    Division of the office of the Attorney General, a
25    prosecuting attorney, the Attorney General, a deputy
26    Attorney General, or an investigator from the office of

 

 

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1    the Attorney General;
2        (3) any Illinois law enforcement officer who is:
3            (A) authorized to receive the type of information
4        released; and
5            (B) approved by the Department to receive the type
6        of information released; or
7        (4) prescription monitoring entities in other states
8    per the provisions outlined in subsection (g) and (h)
9    below;
10confidential prescription record information collected under
11Sections 316 and 321 (now repealed) that identifies vendors or
12practitioners, or both, who are prescribing or dispensing
13large quantities of Schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled
14substances outside the scope of their practice, pharmacy, or
15business, as determined by the Advisory Committee created by
16Section 320.
17    (f-5) In accordance with an agreement entered into with
18the Department, an authorized employee of a county or
19municipal health department or the Department of Public Health
20shall have access to data from the system for any of the
21following purposes:
22            (1) developing education programs or public health
23        interventions relating to specific prescribing
24        practices, controlled substances and the prevention of
25        fraud and abuse; or
26            (2) conducting analyses and publish reports on

 

 

SB3024- 6 -LRB102 22161 RLC 31290 b

1        prescribing trends in their respective jurisdictions.
2    Analyses and reports created as part of subparagraph (2)
3must not include information that identifies, by name,
4license, or address, any practitioner, dispenser, ultimate
5user, or other person administering a controlled substance.
6Any county or municipal health department accessing data from
7the system shall implement appropriate technical and physical
8safeguards to ensure the privacy and security of data obtained
9from the system.
10    (g) The information described in subsection (f) may not be
11released until it has been reviewed by an employee of the
12Department who is licensed as a prescriber or a dispenser and
13until that employee has certified that further investigation
14is warranted. However, failure to comply with this subsection
15(g) does not invalidate the use of any evidence that is
16otherwise admissible in a proceeding described in subsection
17(h).
18    (h) An investigator or a law enforcement officer receiving
19confidential information under subsection (c), (d), or (f) may
20disclose the information to a law enforcement officer or an
21attorney for the office of the Attorney General for use as
22evidence in the following:
23        (1) A proceeding under any State or federal law that
24    involves a controlled substance.
25        (2) A criminal proceeding or a proceeding in juvenile
26    court that involves a controlled substance.

 

 

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1    (i) The Department may compile statistical reports from
2the information described in subsection (a). The reports must
3not include information that identifies, by name, license or
4address, any practitioner, dispenser, ultimate user, or other
5person administering a controlled substance.
6    (j) Based upon federal, initial and maintenance funding, a
7prescriber and dispenser inquiry system shall be developed to
8assist the health care community in its goal of effective
9clinical practice and to prevent patients from diverting or
10abusing medications.
11        (1) An inquirer shall have read-only access to a
12    stand-alone database which shall contain records for the
13    previous 12 months.
14        (2) Dispensers may, upon positive and secure
15    identification, make an inquiry on a patient or customer
16    solely for a medical purpose as delineated within the
17    federal HIPAA law.
18        (3) The Department shall provide a one-to-one secure
19    link and encrypted software necessary to establish the
20    link between an inquirer and the Department. Technical
21    assistance shall also be provided.
22        (4) Written inquiries are acceptable but must include
23    the fee and the requester's requestor's Drug Enforcement
24    Administration license number and submitted upon the
25    requester's requestor's business stationery.
26        (5) As directed by the Prescription Monitoring Program

 

 

SB3024- 8 -LRB102 22161 RLC 31290 b

1    Advisory Committee and the Clinical Director for the
2    Prescription Monitoring Program, aggregate data that does
3    not indicate any prescriber, practitioner, dispenser, or
4    patient may be used for clinical studies.
5        (6) Tracking analysis shall be established and used
6    per administrative rule.
7        (7) Nothing in this Act or Illinois law shall be
8    construed to require a prescriber or dispenser to make use
9    of this inquiry system.
10        (8) If there is an adverse outcome because of a
11    prescriber or dispenser making an inquiry, which is
12    initiated in good faith, the prescriber or dispenser shall
13    be held harmless from any civil liability.
14    (k) The Department shall establish, by rule, the process
15by which to evaluate possible erroneous association of
16prescriptions to any licensed prescriber or end user of the
17Illinois Prescription Information Library (PIL).
18    (l) The Prescription Monitoring Program Advisory Committee
19is authorized to evaluate the need for and method of
20establishing a patient specific identifier.
21    (m) Patients who identify prescriptions attributed to them
22that were not obtained by them shall be given access to their
23personal prescription history pursuant to the validation
24process as set forth by administrative rule.
25    (n) The Prescription Monitoring Program is authorized to
26develop operational push reports to entities with compatible

 

 

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1electronic medical records. The process shall be covered
2within administrative rule established by the Department.
3    (o) Hospital emergency departments and freestanding
4healthcare facilities providing healthcare to walk-in patients
5may obtain, for the purpose of improving patient care, a
6unique identifier for each shift to utilize the PIL system.
7    (p) The Prescription Monitoring Program shall
8automatically create a log-in to the inquiry system when a
9prescriber or dispenser obtains or renews his or her
10controlled substance license. The Department of Financial and
11Professional Regulation must provide the Prescription
12Monitoring Program with electronic access to the license
13information of a prescriber or dispenser to facilitate the
14creation of this profile. The Prescription Monitoring Program
15shall send the prescriber or dispenser information regarding
16the inquiry system, including instructions on how to log into
17the system, instructions on how to use the system to promote
18effective clinical practice, and opportunities for continuing
19education for the prescribing of controlled substances. The
20Prescription Monitoring Program shall also send to all
21enrolled prescribers, dispensers, and designees information
22regarding the unsolicited reports produced pursuant to Section
23314.5 of this Act.
24    (q) A prescriber or dispenser may authorize a designee to
25consult the inquiry system established by the Department under
26this subsection on his or her behalf, provided that all the

 

 

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1following conditions are met:
2        (1) the designee so authorized is employed by the same
3    hospital or health care system; is employed by the same
4    professional practice; or is under contract with such
5    practice, hospital, or health care system;
6        (2) the prescriber or dispenser takes reasonable steps
7    to ensure that such designee is sufficiently competent in
8    the use of the inquiry system;
9        (3) the prescriber or dispenser remains responsible
10    for ensuring that access to the inquiry system by the
11    designee is limited to authorized purposes and occurs in a
12    manner that protects the confidentiality of the
13    information obtained from the inquiry system, and remains
14    responsible for any breach of confidentiality; and
15        (4) the ultimate decision as to whether or not to
16    prescribe or dispense a controlled substance remains with
17    the prescriber or dispenser.
18    The Prescription Monitoring Program shall send to
19registered designees information regarding the inquiry system,
20including instructions on how to log onto the system.
21    (r) The Prescription Monitoring Program shall maintain an
22Internet website in conjunction with its prescriber and
23dispenser inquiry system. This website shall include, at a
24minimum, the following information:
25        (1) current clinical guidelines developed by health
26    care professional organizations on the prescribing of

 

 

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1    opioids or other controlled substances as determined by
2    the Advisory Committee;
3        (2) accredited continuing education programs related
4    to prescribing of controlled substances;
5        (3) programs or information developed by health care
6    professionals that may be used to assess patients or help
7    ensure compliance with prescriptions;
8        (4) updates from the Food and Drug Administration, the
9    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other
10    public and private organizations which are relevant to
11    prescribing;
12        (5) relevant medical studies related to prescribing;
13        (6) other information regarding the prescription of
14    controlled substances; and
15        (7) information regarding prescription drug disposal
16    events, including take-back programs or other disposal
17    options or events.
18    The content of the Internet website shall be periodically
19reviewed by the Prescription Monitoring Program Advisory
20Committee as set forth in Section 320 and updated in
21accordance with the recommendation of the advisory committee.
22    (s) The Prescription Monitoring Program shall regularly
23send electronic updates to the registered users of the
24Program. The Prescription Monitoring Program Advisory
25Committee shall review any communications sent to registered
26users and also make recommendations for communications as set

 

 

SB3024- 12 -LRB102 22161 RLC 31290 b

1forth in Section 320. These updates shall include the
2following information:
3        (1) opportunities for accredited continuing education
4    programs related to prescribing of controlled substances;
5        (2) current clinical guidelines developed by health
6    care professional organizations on the prescribing of
7    opioids or other drugs as determined by the Advisory
8    Committee;
9        (3) programs or information developed by health care
10    professionals that may be used to assess patients or help
11    ensure compliance with prescriptions;
12        (4) updates from the Food and Drug Administration, the
13    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other
14    public and private organizations which are relevant to
15    prescribing;
16        (5) relevant medical studies related to prescribing;
17        (6) other information regarding prescribing of
18    controlled substances;
19        (7) information regarding prescription drug disposal
20    events, including take-back programs or other disposal
21    options or events; and
22        (8) reminders that the Prescription Monitoring Program
23    is a useful clinical tool.
24(Source: P.A. 99-480, eff. 9-9-15; 100-125, eff. 1-1-18;
25100-1093, eff. 8-26-18.)