Sponsors
Introduced March 12, 2026 by Christopher Murphy · Last progress March 12, 2026
The bill substantially strengthens and clarifies protections and reporting channels for healthcare workers—likely increasing reporting and improving patient safety—but does so at the cost of greater legal exposure, administrative and compliance burdens for providers (especially small/rural ones), and some changes to how safety communications are treated in litigation.
Healthcare practitioners (including former employees) can freely report patient-safety concerns—oral, written, to supervisors, regulators, PSOs, or government officials, and via anonymous channels—without ambiguity about protected communication channels or fear of retaliation.
Patients across care settings are more likely to benefit from increased detection, correction of safety problems, and fewer preventable harms because clinicians will be more willing to report issues and facilities must investigate and address them.
Practitioners gain stronger legal remedies: they can sue for retaliation, recover actual damages and attorney’s fees, and face powerful deterrents against employer retaliation through statutory, punitive, and potential class-action damages.
Hospitals and health systems face risk of very large liability awards (including punitive damages and class-action awards tied to net worth), which could materially raise operating costs and be passed on to patients or payers.
Providers (especially small, rural, and Medicare-participating facilities) will incur significant compliance, administrative, and implementation costs to create and maintain anonymous reporting systems, investigate reports, and meet new procedural and filing requirements.
The bill creates legal uncertainty and increased litigation: ambiguous standards (e.g., what "would dissuade a reasonable practitioner"), a 180‑day rebuttable presumption, filing/waiting requirements, and the prospect of bad‑faith or false-report suits will generate disputes and delay resolution.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits retaliation for reporting patient-safety concerns, creates a private cause of action with damages, voids gag/noncompete clauses tied to reporting, and requires Medicare providers to add anonymous reporting and investigation processes.
Protects health care practitioners who report patient-safety concerns by banning retaliation, limiting gag and noncompete enforcement tied to the reported facility, and creating a private right of action with specified damages and timelines. It also prevents pre-litigation safety reports from being used as an adverse inference in later suits and requires Medicare-participating providers to implement anonymous reporting channels and processes to investigate and address reported patient-safety issues within one year of enactment.