§ 90-113.74. Confidentiality.
§ 90‑113.74. Confidentiality.
(a) Prescriptioninformation submitted to the Department is privileged and confidential, is nota public record pursuant to G.S. 132‑1, is not subject to subpoena ordiscovery or any other use in civil proceedings, and except as otherwiseprovided below may only be used for investigative or evidentiary purposesrelated to violations of State or federal law and regulatory activities. Exceptas otherwise provided by this section, prescription information shall not bedisclosed or disseminated to any person or entity by any person or entityauthorized to review prescription information.
(b) The Department mayuse prescription information data in the controlled substances reporting systemonly for purposes of implementing this Article in accordance with itsprovisions.
(c) The Departmentshall release data in the controlled substances reporting system to thefollowing persons only:
(1) Persons authorizedto prescribe or dispense controlled substances for the purpose of providing medicalor pharmaceutical care for their patients.
(2) An individual whorequests the individual's own controlled substances reporting systeminformation.
(3) Special agents ofthe North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation who are assigned to theDiversion & Environmental Crimes Unit and whose primary duties involve theinvestigation of diversion and illegal use of prescription medication and whoare engaged in a bona fide specific investigation related to enforcement oflaws governing licit drugs. The SBI shall notify the Office of the AttorneyGeneral of North Carolina of each request for inspection of records maintainedby the Department.
(4) Primary monitoringauthorities for other states pursuant to a specific ongoing investigationinvolving a designated person, if information concerns the dispensing of aSchedule II through V controlled substance to an ultimate user who resides inthe other state or the dispensing of a Schedule II through V controlledsubstance prescribed by a licensed health care practitioner whose principalplace of business is located in the other state.
(5) To a court pursuantto a lawful court order in a criminal action.
(6) The Division ofMedical Assistance for purposes of administering the State Medical AssistancePlan.
(7) Licensing boardswith jurisdiction over health care disciplines pursuant to an ongoinginvestigation by the licensing board of a specific individual licensed by theboard.
(8) Any county medicalexaminer appointed by the Chief Medical Examiner pursuant to G.S. 130A‑382and the Chief Medical Examiner, for the purpose of investigating the death ofan individual.
(d) The Department mayprovide data to public or private entities for statistical, research, oreducational purposes only after removing information that could be used toidentify individual patients who received prescription medications fromdispensers.
(e) In the event thatthe Department finds patterns of prescribing medications that are unusual, theDepartment shall inform the Attorney General's Office of its findings. TheOffice of the Attorney General shall review the Department's findings todetermine if the findings should be reported to the SBI for investigation ofpossible violations of State or federal law relating to controlled substances.
(f) The Departmentshall purge from the controlled substances reporting system database allinformation more than six years old.
(g) Nothing in thisArticle shall prohibit a person authorized to prescribe or dispense controlledsubstances pursuant to Article 1 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes fromdisclosing or disseminating data regarding a particular patient obtained undersubsection (c) of this section to another person (i) authorized to prescribe ordispense controlled substances pursuant to Article 1 of Chapter 90 of theGeneral Statutes and (ii) authorized to receive the same data from theDepartment under subsection (c) of this section.
(h) Nothing in thisArticle shall prevent persons licensed or approved to practice medicine orperform medical acts, tasks, and functions pursuant to Article 1 of Chapter 90of the General Statutes from retaining data received pursuant to subsection (c)of this section in a patient's confidential health care record. (2005‑276, s.10.36(a); 2009‑438, s. 2.)