Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act
Sponsored By: Senator Murphy, Christopher [D-CT]
Introduced
Summary
Protects health care practitioners who report patient safety concerns and sets a federal enforcement framework with legal remedies when hospitals or other facilities retaliate. It also adds an anonymous reporting channel for Medicare provider reporting and preserves existing patient-safety laws and protections.
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- Health care practitioners: Creates strong anti-retaliation rules and a rebuttable presumption that adverse actions within 180 days are retaliatory. Workers can recover actual damages, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages up to $1.0 million.
- Facilities and contractors: Attributes retaliation to the facility and allows indemnification or contribution claims against staffing companies or contractors. The bill allows class actions with a minimum recovery of at least $10,000 for named plaintiffs and an aggregate recovery floor of $500,000 for other class members.
- Medicare providers and patients: Amends Medicare provider reporting to require an anonymous reporting mechanism and a process to investigate and address reports, effective one year after enactment.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Large damages for health workers
If enacted, health care practitioners who win retaliation suits would be able to recover their actual losses and lawyer costs. They could also get punitive damages up to $1,000,000 in an individual case. The bill would let groups of practitioners bring class actions. In class suits, each named plaintiff would get at least $10,000 or actual damages. Other class members would share an award equal to the largest of total actual damages, $500,000, 1% of the facility's net worth, or 1% of the owning entity's net worth. Courts could also award attorneys' fees.
Protecting health workers who report
If enacted, the bill would protect licensed and authorized health care practitioners who report patient safety concerns. It would bar employers from retaliating and treat many contractor or staffing-company retaliation as the facility's responsibility. Reports to supervisors, State oversight, patient safety organizations, investigators, or government officials would be covered. Adverse actions within 180 days of a report would be presumed retaliatory unless the employer rebuts that presumption. You would generally have to file with the State licensing authority (and the Joint Commission for hospitals) and wait until that investigation finishes or 180 days pass before suing. The bill would void contract gag clauses and release practitioners from non-competes tied to the facility. Communications made before a malpractice suit could not be used to draw adverse inferences about care. Bad-faith reporting could still be the basis for a civil suit if an independent investigation finds the report invalid.
Anonymous reporting at Medicare providers
If enacted, Medicare-participating providers would have to provide a way for practitioners to report patient safety concerns anonymously. They would also have to create a process to investigate and address those reports. This requirement would start one year after the bill is enacted.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Murphy, Christopher [D-CT]
CT • D
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov