By Van de Putte                                        H.B. No. 748
         76R3291 JD-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the submission of prescription information to the
 1-3     director of the Department of Public Safety under the Texas
 1-4     Controlled Substances Act.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 481.075(i), Health and Safety Code, is
 1-7     amended to read as follows:
 1-8           (i)  Each dispensing pharmacist shall:
 1-9                 (1)  fill in on the official prescription form each
1-10     item of information given orally to the dispensing pharmacy under
1-11     Subsection (h), the date the prescription is filled, and the
1-12     dispensing pharmacist's signature;
1-13                 (2)  retain with the records of the pharmacy for at
1-14     least two years:
1-15                       (A)  the official prescription form; and
1-16                       (B)  the name or other patient identification
1-17     required by Section 481.074(m) or (n); and
1-18                 (3)  send to the director by electronic transfer all
1-19     information required by the director, including any information
1-20     required to complete an official prescription form[, to the
1-21     director by electronic transfer, a universal claim form customarily
1-22     used by pharmaceutical service providers,] or a [other] form
1-23     approved by the director, including a  universal claim form
1-24     customarily used by pharmaceutical service providers, not later
 2-1     than the 30th day after the date the prescription is filled  or not
 2-2     later than the 30th day after the completion of a prescription
 2-3     dispensed under Section 481.074(f).
 2-4           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.