I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3672
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for voluntary reporting
by health care providers of medication error information in order to
assist appropriate public and nonprofit private entities in developing
and disseminating recommendations and information with respect to pre-
venting medication errors.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 16, 2000
Mrs. MORELLA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for
voluntary reporting by health care providers of medica-
tion error information in order to assist appropriate pub-
lic and nonprofit private entities in developing and dis-
seminating recommendations and information with re-
spect to preventing medication errors.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Medication Error Pre-
vention Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. VOLUNTARY REPORTING PROGRAM REGARDING
MEDICATION ERRORS; DEVELOPMENT AND
DISSEMINATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
PREVENTING MEDICATION ERRORS.
Part B of title II of the Public Health Service Act
(42 U.S.C. 238 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end
the following section:
‘‘SEC. 247. VOLUNTARY REPORTING PROGRAM REGARDING
MEDICATION ERRORS; DEVELOPMENT AND
DISSEMINATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
PREVENTING MEDICATION ERRORS.
‘‘(a) PRIVILEGED LEGAL STATUS OF REPORTED IN-
FORMATION.—If the Secretary approves a program as
meeting the criteria described in subsection (b) to serve
as the reporting program for purposes of this section, any
medication error information submitted to the reporting
program by a health care provider pursuant to an agree-
ment under paragraph (3) of such subsection is privileged
for purposes of Federal and State judicial proceedings in
civil matters, and for purposes of Federal and State ad-
ministrative proceedings, including with respect to dis-
covery and subpoenas.
‘‘(b) CRITERIA FOR REPORTING PROGRAM.—With re-
spect to the approval by the Secretary of a reporting pro-
gram for purposes of this section, the criteria referred to
in subsection (a) are as follows:
‘‘(1) The reporting program is operated by The
United States Pharmacopeial Convention, Incor-
porated (except that if such entity declines to oper-
ate a reporting program for purposes of this section,
the Secretary may accept another nonprofit private
entity for such purposes).
‘‘(2) Under such program, health care providers
voluntarily submit medication error information to
the program, and the program uses the information
for the purpose of developing and disseminating rec-
ommendations and information with respect to pre-
venting such errors, including recommendations in
the form of protocols, procedures, and best-practices
information.
‘‘(3) The use by the program of medication
error information submitted to the program by a
health care provider is governed by an agreement
entered into by the program and the provider.
‘‘(4) Such agreement includes the following
policies (without regard to whether the following lan-
guage is used in the agreement):
‘‘(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), the re-
porting program reserves the right to disclose
to third parties medication error information
submitted by a health care provider if, in the
judgment of the program, the information can
be used for purposes of furthering research,
education, standards setting, improvement in
processes, product improvement, public health,
or public safety.
‘‘(B) If such a disclosure is made, the ex-
tent of information disclosed will be limited to
the information required to meet the purposes
described in subparagraph (A).
‘‘(c) FEDERAL DISCLOSURES.—Officers and employ-
ees of a Federal agency may not disclose any medication
error information that is received by the agency from the
reporting program pursuant to an agreement between the
agency and the program, except to the extent that disclo-
sure of the information is authorized by the agreement.
The preceding sentence applies notwithstanding any other
provision of law.
‘‘(d) SCOPE OF PRIVILEGE.—With respect to Federal
and State judicial proceedings in civil matters, and Fed-
eral and State administrative proceedings:
‘‘(1) In the case of a health care provider:
‘‘(A) The privilege under subsection (a)
protects all medication error information of the
provider that is provided in a submission to the
reporting program or is developed for purposes