Bill Introduced to Shield Health Providers From Lawsuits on Quality Measures

Sens. Pat Toomey and Tom Carper have introduced a bill that’s designed to protect physicians and other providers from new legal liability under federal health care metrics. The lawmakers are concerned that physicians could get sued if they rank low on national quality measures such as the second stage of meaningful use, the Physician Quality Reporting System or the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program under the ACA or other federal law. They hope to include the legislation as an amendment to the Sustainable Growth Rate repeal bill in the Senate Finance Committee.

The Standard of Care Protecting Act would prohibit lawsuits based solely on the metrics, but it would allow the measures to be used as supporting evidence in other litigation. A Toomey aide said physicians and hospitals are concerned about their liability exposure without such protection. A similar bill has been introduced in the House by Reps. Phil Gingrey and Henry Cuellar, with bipartisan support from 14 other cosponsors. It was included in the House Energy and Commerce SGR bill.