(a) No pharmacist or pharmacy shall reveal any records or information concerning the nature of pharmaceutical services rendered to a patient without the oral or written consent of the patient or the patient's agent. If a patient or a patient's agent gives oral consent to release records or information, the pharmacist shall promptly record, in writing or in electronic data base form, the oral consent by listing the patient's name, the name of the patient's agent, if applicable, the date and the nature of the records or information released.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, a pharmacist or pharmacy may provide pharmacy records or information to the following: (1) The patient; (2) the prescribing practitioner or a pharmacist or another prescribing practitioner presently treating the patient when deemed medically appropriate; (3) a person registered or licensed pursuant to chapter 378 who is acting as an agent for a prescribing practitioner that is presently treating the patient or a person registered or licensed pursuant to chapter 378 providing care to the patient in a hospital; (4) third party payors who pay claims for pharmaceutical services rendered to a patient or who have a formal agreement or contract to audit any records or information in connection with such claims; (5) any governmental agency with statutory authority to review or obtain such information; (6) any individual, the state or federal government or any agency thereof or court pursuant to a subpoena; and (7) any individual, corporation, partnership or other legal entity which has a written agreement with a pharmacy to access the pharmacy's database provided the information accessed is limited to data which does not identify specific individuals.
(P.A. 95-85; P.A. 99-175, S. 44.)
History: P.A. 99-175 amended Subsec. (b) to make technical changes.
Subsec. (a):
Statute is intended to protect information concerning the nature of customer's treatment and not pharmacy's billing practices. 53 CA 129.
Subsec. (b):
Pharmacy required to comply with investigative demand of commissioner; civil investigative demand determined to be equivalent of subpoena. 53 CA 129.