Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 25, June 21, 2024
Section 15-8-7 - Confidentiality7.1. The board shall carry out a program to protect the confidentiality of the information received by the central repository.7.2. The board may disclose confidential information received by the central repository to a person who is engaged in receiving, processing, or storing the information.7.3. The board may release confidential information received by the central repository to the following persons: 7.3.a. An authorized agent of a board in this state or another state that licenses practitioners authorized to prescribe Schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled substances who is engaged in an investigation, an adjudication, or a prosecution of a violation under any state or federal law that involves a controlled substance;7.3.b. Members of the West Virginia State Police expressly authorized by the superintendent of the West Virginia State Police to have access to the information;7.3.c. An authorized agent of a local law-enforcement agency who is acting as a member of a Federally affiliated drug task force engaged in an investigation, an adjudication, or a prosecution of a violation under any state or federal law that involves a controlled substance;7.3.d. Authorized agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration who is engaged in an investigation, an adjudication, or a prosecution of a violation under any state or federal law that involves a controlled substance;7.3.e. Authorized agents of the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services;7.3.f. The Chief Medical Examiner for the State of West Virginia or his or her authorized agent for use in post-mortem examinations;7.3.g. Authorized agents of the West Virginia Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification for use in certification, licensure and regulation of health facilities;7.3.h. A dean of a medical school located in this State or his or her designee to access prescriber level data to monitor prescribing practices of faculty members, prescribers and residents enrolled in a degree program at the school where he or she serves as dean;7.3.i. A physician reviewer designated by an employer of medical providers to monitor prescriber level information of prescribing practices of physicians, advance practice registered nurses, or physician assistants in their employ;7.3.j. A chief medical officer of a hospital, or a physician designated by the chief executive officer of a hospital which does not have a chief medical officer, to monitor prescriber level information of prescribing practices of prescribers who have admitting privileges to the hospital;7.3.k. A person with an enforceable court order or regulatory agency administrative subpoena;7.3.l. Inspectors and agents of the board to carry out the lawful purposes of the CSMP program, for purposes of a pharmacy inspection or drug inventory, or who are engaged in an investigation, an adjudication, or a prosecution of a violation under any state or federal law that involves a controlled substance;7.3.m. Prescribing practitioners or their authorized agents for purposes of treating a patient;7.3.n. Pharmacists or a registered pharmacy technician as the agent of the pharmacist for purposes of treating a patient; and7.3.o. A person using the data for compilation of educational, scholarly, or statistical purposes so long as the individually identifiable data of the persons or entities stored in the central repository remains confidential.7.4. All information released by the board shall be related to a specific patient or a specific individual or entity under investigation by any of the persons set forth in subsection 7.3 (a) through (n) of this section except that practitioners who prescribe or dispense controlled substances may also request specific data related to all dispensings reported to the database as prescribed and/or dispensed under their drug enforcement administration controlled substance registration number or for the purpose of providing treatment to a patient.7.4.a. A practitioner or practitioner's delegate may, prior to affirmatively accepting a patient into the practitioner's practice, obtain confidential information from the CSMP related to that patient for the purpose of determining whether or not to accept the patient and provide treatment.7.4.b. If the patient is a newborn child or child being fed human breast milk, a practitioner or practitioner's delegate may obtain confidential information from the CSMP related to the child's mother, wet nurse, or other direct source of human breast milk, as the practitioner believes may be relevant for the purpose of providing treatment to that child-patient.7.5. Access to the data collected by the central repository shall be limited to regular business hours of the board's office unless an individual authorized to receive the information proves that an immediate danger to the public exists and immediate access is necessary to prevent further harm The board may permit access at any time to authorized users through the use of a secure connection and through the use of proper security features designed to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the information from unauthorized access or disclosure.7.6. A person or entity having access to the central repository and who is permitted to designate an authorized agent to have access to the central repository pursuant to this rule shall make the designation on a form to be supplied by the board. It is the responsibility of the designating individual to ensure that the designated agent maintains the confidentiality of the information in the central repository as required. If the designating individual remove the authority of the designated agent to act as the authorized agent, or should the designated agent leave the employment of the designating individual or entity then the designating individual shall immediately notify the board, at which time the designee's access to the central repository shall be removed.7.7. A practitioner may file or store copies of a patient-specific report obtained from the CSMP in the patient's confidential medical file or chart maintained by the practitioner. The practitioner may share the information contained in the report with other practitioners providing treatment to the patient, the patient, or the patient's authorized guardian or representative for the purpose of providing treatment. If the information held in the patient file or chart is not subject to discovery in a civil or criminal matter absent a court order. The information is obtainable from the practitioner in a proper regulatory agency administrative matter through a regulatory agency administrative subpoena.7.8. The board shall review records in the CSMP in accordance with parameters set by the Advisory Committee to identify abnormal or unusual practices of patients who exceed those parameters and are therefore outliers in the CSMP data. The board shall issue reports of the results of these searches to the Review Committee for its regular review and action. The board shall communicate with prescribers and dispensers of the patients who exceed the parameters to inform them of each practitioner's patient's activities as demonstrated in the CSMP reports. Reports and communications produced by the board shall be kept confidential by the board and the Review Committee.7.9. The Review Committee may query the CSMP based on parameters established by the advisory committee to identify abnormal or unusual practices of patients who are outliers in the data according to their controlled substance prescribing, dispensing, or usage patterns or other indicators available in the system. The Review Committee may also query the CSMP based on parameters established by the advisory committee to identify abnormal prescribing and/or dispensing patterns of practitioners indicated by outliers in the system. The Review Committee may also query the CSMP for any relevant prescribing or dispensing records of involved patients or practitioners as it carries out its duty to review notices provided by the chief medical examiner pursuant to West Virginia Code § 61-12-10(h) and determine on a case-by-case basis whether a practitioner who prescribed or dispensed a controlled substance may have resulted in or contributed to the drug overdose, and, if so, if the practitioner may have breached professional or occupational standards or committed a criminal act when prescribing the controlled substance at issue to the decedent. The Review Committee, in accordance with parameters established by the Advisory Committee, may provide any pertinent information in its discretion from the CSMP to the relevant practitioner, the practitioner's licensing board, or law enforcement as permitted by West Virginia Code § 60A-9-5(b). The Review Committee, in accordance with parameters established by the Advisory Committee, may also communicate with pertinent practitioners or patients to make them aware of the practitioner's own prescribing or dispensing patterns or history, or the patient's own usage patterns or history as reflected in the CSMP in an effort to reduce inappropriate use of prescription drugs in accordance with West Virginia Code § 60A-9-5(a)(3)(C). The information obtained and developed by or on behalf of the Review Committee may not be shared except as provided in West Virginia Code § 60A-9-5(b) and as provided specifically in subsection 7.8 and this subsection of this section.