[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5435 Introduced in House (IH)]






107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5435

To establish an Office of Health Care Competition within the Department 
 of Health and Human Services to administer the National Practitioner 
    Data Bank and to collect and make available to the public more 
   information on medical malpractice insurance under that Data Bank.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 24, 2002

 Mr. DeFazio introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish an Office of Health Care Competition within the Department 
 of Health and Human Services to administer the National Practitioner 
    Data Bank and to collect and make available to the public more 
   information on medical malpractice insurance under that Data Bank.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Improved Medical Malpractice 
Information Reporting and Competition Act of 2002''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF HEALTH CARE COMPETITION WITHIN THE 
              DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES.

    (a) In General.--There is established within the Department of 
Health and Human Services an Office to be known as the Office of Health 
Care Competition Policy (in this section referred to as the 
``Office''). The Office shall be headed by a Director, who shall be 
appointed by the Secretary of such Department.
    (b) Duties.--
            (1) Responsibility for national practitioner data base.--
        The Office shall be responsible for activities of the Secretary 
        under part B of title IV of the Health Care Quality Improvement 
        Act of 1986 (title IV of Public Law 99-660), including the 
        National Practitioner Data Base under such part.
            (2) Annual report.--The Director of the Office shall submit 
        a report each year to the Secretary of Health and Human 
        Services on activities conducted under such part.

SEC. 3. CHANGES IN NATIONAL PRACTITIONER DATA BASE PROVISIONS.

    (a) Requiring Additional Reports on Medical Malpractice Insurance 
and Claims.--Part B of title IV of the Health Care Quality Improvement 
Act of 1986 (title IV of Public Law 99-660) is amended by inserting 
after section 421 the following new section:

``SEC. 421A. REQUIRING REPORTS ON MEDICAL MALPRACTICE INSURANCE AND 
              CLAIMS.

    ``(a) In General.--Each entity (including an insurance company) 
which underwrites a policy of insurance for medical malpractice actions 
or claims shall report, in accordance with section 424, information 
respecting such insurance and claims for payment under such policy. 
Such information shall be in addition to, and may be coordinated with, 
the information required to be reported under section 421.
    ``(b) Information To Be Reported.--The information to be reported 
under subsection (a) by an entity with resepect to a medical 
malpractice insurance policy includes--
            ``(1) the number of such policies of the entity that are in 
        effect;
            ``(2) the amount of the premiums collected under each such 
        policy;
            ``(3) with respect to each medical malpractice action or 
        claim brought under such a policy--
                    ``(A) a description of the physician, or other 
                licensed health care practitioner or health care 
                provider against whom the action or claim is brought, 
                the insuring entity, and the principal trial (or other) 
                lawyer defending against the action or claim, and
                    ``(B) the outcome of such action or claim 
                (including settlements and verdicts);
            ``(4) a description of the acts or omissions and injuries 
        or illnesses upon which the action or claim was based; and
            ``(5) such other information as the Secretary determines is 
        required for appropriate interpretation of information reported 
        under this section.
    ``(c) Sanctions for Failure To Report.--The provisions of section 
421(c) shall apply to information required to be reported under this 
section in the same manner as they apply to the reporting of 
information on a payment required to be reported under section 421.
    ``(d) Coordination of Information Reporting.--The Secretary shall 
provide for the coordination of reporting of information under this 
section with the reporting of related information under section 421.''.
    (b) Inclusion and Availability of Information.--Section 427(b) of 
such Act (42 U.S.C. 11137(b)) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new paragraph:
            ``(4) Availability of public file data.--Notwithstanding 
        the previous provisions of this subsection, the Secretary shall 
        make available, for free from the website maintained in 
        connection with the data base established to carry out this 
        part, information reported under sections 421 and 421A which 
        does not provide for individually identifiable information.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take 
effect 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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