Physician and Patient Safety Act

This bill tells the U.S. health department to set rules that protect doctors’ due process rights at hospitals. Before a hospital can cut, limit, or end a doctor’s work or staff privileges, the doctor must get a fair hearing and a chance to appeal through the hospital’s medical staff process. A hospital or a staffing company can’t block or take away these rights through a contract, and doctors can’t be forced to sign away these rights to get or keep a job. Hearings and appeals must stay confidential and not be reported to places like the National Practitioner Data Bank or future employers, unless there’s an ongoing threat to patient safety or reporting is otherwise required by the Data Bank’s rules.

Key points:

• Who is affected: Physicians with hospital staff privileges; hospitals; third-party staffing firms; patients. Doctors get fair hearings; patients benefit from rules that focus on safety and fairness.
• What changes: Required fair hearing and appeal before limiting a doctor’s work; no forced waivers; no denial of hearings by contract; hearings stay confidential except for safety or required reporting to the Data Bank.
• When: The final rules must take effect within 18 months after the law is enacted.