§11111 Professional Review

Summary

Protects hospitals, medical review committees, their members, staff, contractors, and anyone who helps them from being sued for money damages under federal or state law for a professional review action if the review follows the rules in 42 U.S.C. 11112(a). It also protects people who give information to a review body about a doctor, unless the information was false and the person knew it was false. These protections do not stop claims under federal civil‑rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) and 42 U.S.C. 1981 et seq. The United States or a State Attorney General may still bring authorized actions, including under 15 U.S.C. 15c. If the Secretary believes a health care entity failed to report required information under 42 U.S.C. 11133(a), the Secretary will investigate, give notice, a chance to fix the problem, and a hearing. If the Secretary finds a substantial failure, the Secretary will publish the entity’s name in the Federal Register, and the liability protections above will not apply to that entity for review actions started during the 3‑year period beginning 30 days after publication. The liability protections apply to state laws only for actions started on or after October 14, 1989, unless a State passes a law choosing to apply the protections earlier; that choice applies only to actions started on or after the date that State law takes effect.