Better HEALTH Act of 2003

Bill: 108-s-1374
Sponsor: Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL]
Introduced: 2003-07-08 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Access to health care
Economics and Public Finance
Emergency Management
Emergency medicine
Families
Federal advisory bodies
Federal aid to child health services
Federal aid to health facilities
Finance and Financial Sector
Frivolous lawsuits
Government Operations and Politics
Health insurance
Insurance premiums
Law
Liability insurance
Medicaid
Medical malpractice
Medicare
Poor children
Public health personnel
Punitive damages
Social Welfare
Trauma care

Summary:
action_date: 2003-07-08
text: 
Better HEALTH Act of 2003 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, to award grants or contracts for geographic areas that have a shortage of health care professionals due to the costs of medical malpractice insurance.
 
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide a business tax credit for medical professional malpractice insurance according to a specified schedule. 
 
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration, to make grants to eligible nonprofit hospitals and clinics to pay 15 percent of qualified medical malpractice insurance costs. 
 

 
Prohibits any individual from bringing a medical malpractice liability action unless it is accompanied by the affidavit of a qualified specialist attesting to the reasonableness of the filing. Requires the attorney of a person filing such an action, or the individual if there is no attorney, to sign a certificate of merit attesting to the justified nature of the action.
 
Directs courts to impose sanctions for violations of the provisions pertaining to the certificate of merit, including to issue fines for multiple offenders.
 
Medical Malpractice Insurance Antitrust Act of 2003 - Declares that nothing in the McCarran-Ferguson Act shall be construed to permit commercial insurers to engage in any form of price fixing, bid rigging, or market allocations in connection with the conduct of the business of providing medical malpractice insurance.
 
Establishes an Independent Advisory Commission on Medical Malpractice Insurance.
 
Patient Safety Improvement and Medical Injury Reduction Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to set forth that, with certain exceptions, patient safety information shall be privileged and confidential and not subject to specified disclosures. Allows health care professionals to waive such privileges. Declares that it is unlawful for any person to disclose patient safety information in violation of this Act (with specified exceptions).
 
Grants protection against adverse employment actions to individuals who report certain types of information to providers or patient safety organizations.
 
Requires the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to establish: (1) a Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety; (2) a National Patient Safety Database; and (3) a National Patient Safety Research Demonstration System.
 

 
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to eligible entities to promote community partnerships for health care improvement among health care professionals, with the aim of improving the quality of medical care in communities.
 

 
Directs the Secretary to appoint a Medical Information Technology Advisory Board.
 
Allows the Secretary to make grants for: (1) computerized physician order entry systems; (2) informatics systems; and (3) patient safety research.
 
Amends provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to classify drugs and biological devices as misbranded unless they include a unique product identifier. Directs the Secretary to issue and periodically revise regulations to require the manufacturer of such a product, or its packager or labeler, to include such information on the packaging. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2003-07-08
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2003-07-08
text: Introduced in Senate