HB14-1283 – Modify Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

HB14-1283 makes the following modifications to the electronic prescription drug monitoring program:

• The dissemination of automatic reports to prescribers and pharmacies when a patient meets a defined threshold that takes into account the number of prescribers and pharmacies visited within a certain timeframe. Reports will start in September 2014.
• Allows a prescribing practitioner or a pharmacist to delegate authority to access the database to up to 3 designees acting for the practitioner or pharmacist, and requires each designee to register with the program under a sub-account of the practitioner or pharmacist. Delegated Access will start in January 2015.
• Requires prescribing practitioners and pharmacists to register and create user accounts with the program by a deadline established by the Director of the Division of Professions and Occupations.Those deadlines are:
• Pharmacists and DEA-registered Advanced Practice Nurses: September 30, 2014
• DEA-registered Dentists, Veterinarians, Optometrists and Podiatrists: October 31, 2014
• DEA-registered Medical Board licensees: November 30, 2014
• Allows the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to access data from the PDMP for public health research. CDPHE access will begin in the Fall 2014.
• Allows an out-of-state pharmacist to obtain Colorado PDMP data in connection with a current patient to whom the pharmacist is dispensing a controlled substance or is providing clinical patient care services. This ability to obtain such data is already available.
• Adds individual pharmacies as an eligible subject for information requests by law enforcement officials if the request for information is accompanied by a court order or subpoena beginning immediately.
• Allows federally owned and operated pharmacies to submit data to the database beginning immediately.
• Authorizes the executive director of the department of regulatory agencies to create a prescription drug monitoring program task force, or to request assistance from the team assembled by the governor’s office to develop a plan to reduce prescription drug abuse, to study the program and make recommendations to the executive director on ways to ensure that the program is effective at reducing prescription drug abuse and misuse. The Executive Director has requested the Governor’s Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse serve as the taskforce.

Together, these modifications to the PDMP will require updating the online PDMP system and notifying prescribers and dispensers as well as those who receive delegated access to the PDMP of the provisions of this bill.