Sponsors
The bill strengthens veteran and patient safety and accountability by enabling lawsuits, reporting, and removal of repeatedly implicated providers, at the cost of greater burdens and reputational/economic risks for providers and increased litigation exposure and limited forum options for plaintiffs.
Veterans and patients will have higher safety because contract providers repeatedly implicated in malpractice can be revoked and banned after five covered cases in five years, removing high-risk clinicians from VA care.
Veterans and their families can hold non-VA contract providers accountable by suing when the VA timely provides required information, improving access to compensation and legal remedies.
Veterans will face fewer risks from VA-employed clinicians with repeated malpractice judgments or settlements because the bill requires disciplinary charges, strengthening internal accountability and patient protection at VA facilities.
Contract providers who accumulate five covered cases risk revocation and multi-year contracting bans, which can cause significant loss of livelihood and impose lengthy, burdensome appeals.
Veterans and other claimants lose the option to file duplicate suits in both State and Federal court, reducing plaintiffs' forum choice and limiting strategic legal options.
Mandatory reporting to licensing boards and the NPDB could cause reputational harm for providers from settlements that may not reflect actual malpractice, threatening careers and professional liberty.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Alters VA malpractice rules: adjusts FTCA treatment for contract providers, requires reporting and bans for repeat covered cases, and mandates charges for VA clinicians with multiple judgments/settlements.
Introduced April 3, 2025 by Morgan Luttrell · Last progress April 3, 2025
Amends federal law governing VA medical malpractice and accountability to change how claims involving non-VA (contract) health-care providers at VA facilities are handled, add notification and public-outreach requirements after judgments, and require the VA to pursue professional charges against VA-employed physicians who are subject to multiple civil judgments or settlements. It creates definitions, limits dual filing in state and federal court, imposes contracting bans and license-reporting duties for repeat non-Department providers, and sets timelines for notices and appeals. The changes apply to incidents that occur on or after the law's enactment.