National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation Act

Bill: 109-s-1784
Sponsor: Sen. Clinton, Hillary Rodham [D-NY]
Introduced: 2005-09-28 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Civil actions and liability
Confidential communications
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Damages
Data banks
Department of Health and Human Services
Disciplining of employees
Economics and Public Finance
Executive reorganization
Federal aid to health facilities
Finance and Financial Sector
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Government publicity
Governmental investigations
Grants-in-aid
Health information systems
Health surveys
Hospital personnel
Insurance companies
Insurance premiums
Law
Liability insurance
Mediation
Medical malpractice
Medical personnel
Medical records
Medical research
Preventive medicine
Quality of care
Right of privacy
Right to counsel
Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
action_date: 2005-09-28
text: 
National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation Act or the National MEDiC Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish the Office of Patient Safety and Health Care Quality to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors across the health care system.
 
Requires the Director of the Office to establish and maintain a National Patient Safety Database to receive nonidentifiable patient safety work product.
 
Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director, to establish the National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation (MEDiC) Program to provide for the confidential disclosure of medical errors and patient safety events, reduce preventable medical errors, ensure patient access to fair compensation for medical injury due to medical error, negligence, or malpractice, and reduce the cost of medical liability for health care providers. Requires Program participants to: (1) spend savings from the Program on reducing medical liability premiums or on activities to reduce medical errors; (2) report to a patient safety officer any medical error or patient safety event or any legal action related to the medical liability of a health care provider; (3) report to the patient any medical error that resulted in harm; and (4) offer to negotiate compensation with the patient and offer to provide an apology.
 
Requires the Director to award grants to facilitate the reporting, collection, and analysis of patient safety data and the development and dissemination of training guidelines and other recommendations to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety and quality of care.
 
Requires the Director to analyze: (1) patient safety data to determine performance and systems standards, tools, and best practices for health care providers; (2) the medical liability insurance market to determine legal costs related to medical liability, factors leading to such legal costs, and the success of any state reforms; and (3) patient safety data to examine cases that were not successfully negotiated through the Program.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2005-09-28
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2005-09-28
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S10599)
action_date: 2005-09-28
text: Introduced in Senate