CURES database: health information technology system.

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 a health care practitioner authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense a Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substance. This bill would, no later than October 1, 2018, require the Department of Justice to make the electronic history of controlled substances dispensed to an individual under a health care practitioner's or pharmacist's care, based on data contained in the CURES database, available to the practitioner or pharmacist, as specified. The bill would authorize a health care practitioner or pharmacist to submit a query to the CURES database through the department's online portal or through a health information technology system if the entity operating the system has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the department addressing the technical specifications of the system and can certify, among other requirements, that the system meets applicable patient privacy and information security requirements of state and federal law. The bill would also require an entity operating a health information technology system that is requesting to establish an integration with the CURES database to pay a reasonable system maintenance fee. The bill would prohibit the department from accessing patient-identifiable information in an entity's health information technology system. The bill would authorize the department to prohibit integration or terminate a health information technology system's ability to retrieve information in the CURES database if the health information technology system or the entity operating the health information technology system does not comply with specified provisions of the bill. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.