(a) To assist health care practitioners in their efforts to ensure appropriate prescribing, ordering, administering, furnishing, and dispensing of controlled substances, law enforcement and regulatory agencies in their efforts to control the diversion and resultant abuse of Schedule II, Schedule III, Schedule IV, and Schedule V controlled substances, and for statistical analysis, education, and research, the Department of Justice shall, contingent upon the availability of adequate funds in the CURES Fund, maintain the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) for the electronic monitoring of, and internet access to information regarding, the prescribing and dispensing of Schedule II, Schedule III, Schedule IV, and Schedule V controlled substances by all practitioners authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense these controlled substances. (b) The department may seek and use grant funds to pay the costs incurred by the operation and maintenance of CURES. The department shall annually report to the Legislature and make available to the public the amount and source of funds it receives for support of CURES. (c) (1) The operation of CURES shall comply with all applicable federal and state privacy and security laws and regulations. (2) (A) CURES shall operate under existing provisions of law to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of patients. Data obtained from CURES shall only be provided to appropriate state, local, and federal public agencies for disciplinary, civil, or criminal purposes and to other agencies or entities, as determined by the department, for the purpose of educating practitioners and others in lieu of disciplinary, civil, or criminal actions. Data may be provided to public or private entities, as approved by the department, for educational, peer review, statistical, or research purposes, if patient information, including information that may identify the patient, is not compromised. The University of California shall be provided access to identifiable data for research purposes if the requirements of subdivision (t) of Section 1798.24 of the Civil Code are satisfied. Further, data disclosed to an individual or agency as described in this subdivision shall not be disclosed, sold, or transferred to a third party, unless authorized by, or pursuant to, state and federal privacy and security laws and regulations. The department shall establish policies, procedures, and regulations regarding the use, access, evaluation, management, implementation, operation, storage, disclosure, and security of the information within CURES, consistent with this subdivision. (B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), a regulatory board whose licensees do not prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense controlled substances shall not be provided data obtained from CURES. (C) (i) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A) or any other law, a state or local agency or employee, appointee, officer, contractor, or official or any other person acting on behalf of a public agency shall not knowingly provide any CURES data or knowingly expend or use time, money, facilities, property, equipment, personnel, or other resources in furtherance of any interstate investigation or proceeding seeking to impose civil, criminal, or disciplinary liability based on another stateâs laws for the provision or receipt of legally protected health care activity, as defined in Section 1798.300 of the Civil Code. (ii) This section does not prohibit the investigation of any activity that is punishable as a crime under the laws of this state so long as CURES data related to any legally protected health care activity, as defined in Section 1798.300 of the Civil Code, is not knowingly shared with any individual or entity from another state. (iii) This section does not prohibit compliance with an audit or investigation of activity that is unlawful under the laws of this state or federal law, or with an audit, review, or i
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