D.C. Law 25-125. Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Amendment Act of 2023.
AN ACT
To amend the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Act of 2013 to expand the authority of the Director of the Department of Health to disclose information related to the prescribing and dispensing of covered substances, and to authorize the Director to charge a fee to offset the operational costs of expanding disclosure to information.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this act may be cited as the "Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Amendment Act of 2023".
Sec. 2. Section 6(c) of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Act of 2013, effective February 22, 2014 (D.C. Law 20-66; D.C. Official Code § 48-853.05(c)), is amended as follows:
(a) Paragraph (1) is amended as follows:
(1) Subparagraph (F) is amended by striking the phrase "; and" and inserting a semicolon in its place.
(2) Subparagraph (G)(ii) is amended by striking the period and inserting a semicolon in its place.
(3) New subparagraphs (H) and (I) are added to read as follows:
"(H) Aggregate and summary data that has been processed to remove information that could be used to reasonably identify a specific patient, prescriber, or dispenser to a person for statistical, research, educational, or grant application purposes; and
"(I) Information for the purpose of public health surveillance to employees of the Department's Center for Policy, Planning, and Evaluation; provided, that:
"(i) Data elements that would identify a specific patient, prescriber, or dispenser shall be deleted or redacted from the information before disclosure; and
"(ii) Release of the information shall only be made pursuant to a written agreement between the employees of the Center for Policy, Planning, and Evaluation and the Director to ensure compliance with
(b) New paragraphs (3) and (4) are added to read as follows:
"(3) For a disclosure made under paragraph (1)(G) or (H) of this subsection, the Director may establish and collect fees to recover the operational costs associated with the disclosure, including the costs associated with reaching a data sharing agreement, monitoring user compliance with the data sharing agreement, and searching, aggregating, anonymizing, sampling, and cleaning the data.
"(4) All fees collected pursuant to paragraph (3) of this subsection shall be deposited as nonlapsing funds in the Health Occupations Regulation Fund established by
Sec. 3. Fiscal impact statement.
The Council adopts the fiscal impact statement in the committee report as the fiscal impact statement required by section 4a of the General Legislative Procedures Act of 1975, approved October 16, 2006 (120 Stat. 2038; D.C. Official Code § 1-301.47a).
Sec. 4. Effective date.
This act shall take effect following approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto by the Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto), a 30-day period of congressional review as provided in section 602(c)(1) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973, approved December 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 813; D.C. Official Code § 1-206.02(c)(1)), and publication in the District of Columbia Register.
