(a) As used in this section:

(1) “Opioid drug” has the same meaning as provided in 42 CFR 8.2, as amended from time to time;

(2) “Prescribing practitioner” has the same meaning as provided in section 20-14c; and

(3) “Voluntary nonopioid directive form” means a form that is voluntarily filed by a patient with a prescribing practitioner that indicates such patient’s request to not be issued a prescription or medication order for an opioid drug.

(b) The Department of Public Health, in consultation with the Departments of Consumer Protection and Mental Health and Addiction Services, shall establish a voluntary nonopioid directive form and publish such form on its Internet web site for public use. Any person who does not wish to be issued a prescription or medication order for an opioid drug may file such form with a prescribing practitioner. Upon receipt of a voluntary nonopioid directive form, a prescribing practitioner shall document such receipt in the patient’s medical record.

(c) The voluntary nonopioid directive form established by the Department of Public Health shall allow a patient to appoint a duly authorized guardian or health care proxy to override a previously recorded voluntary nonopioid directive form. Such patient, duly authorized guardian or health care proxy may revoke the directive, orally or in writing, for any reason, at any time.

(d) An electronically transmitted prescription to a pharmacy shall be presumed to be valid for the purposes of this section and a pharmacist shall not be held in violation of this section for dispensing a controlled substance in contradiction to a voluntary nonopioid directive form.

(e) No prescribing practitioner acting with reasonable care shall be liable for damages in a civil action, subject to criminal prosecution or deemed to have violated the standard of care for such prescribing practitioner for refusing to issue a prescription or medication order for an opioid pursuant to a voluntary nonopioid directive form.

(f) No person acting in good faith as a duly authorized guardian or health care proxy shall be liable for damages in a civil action or subject to criminal prosecution for revoking or overriding a voluntary nonopioid directive form.

(g) A prescribing practitioner who wilfully fails to comply with a patient’s voluntary nonopioid directive form may be subject to disciplinary action pursuant to section 19a-17.

(h) No emergency department prescribing practitioner, acting either as the patient’s practitioner or as the medical control officer for emergency medical services personnel, and acting with reasonable care shall be liable for damages in a civil action, subject to criminal prosecution or deemed to have violated the standard of care for a prescribing practitioner for issuing a prescription for or administering a controlled substance containing an opioid to a person who has a voluntary nonopioid directive form, when, in such prescribing practitioner’s professional medical judgment, a controlled substance containing an opioid is necessary and such prescribing practitioner had no knowledge of the patient’s voluntary nonopioid directive form at the time of issuance or administration.

(P.A. 17-131, S. 4.)