[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5386 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5386

 To amend the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 to recognize 
 that physicians need to be protected from abuses of the peer reviewed 
                    process, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 27, 2021

  Mr. David Scott of Georgia introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 to recognize 
 that physicians need to be protected from abuses of the peer reviewed 
                    process, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Shield and Protect Physician Peer-
Reviews Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. RECOGNIZING THAT PHYSICIANS NEED TO BE PROTECTED FROM ABUSES OF 
              THE PEER REVIEWED PROCESS.

    (a) In General.--Section 402 of the Health Care Quality Improvement 
Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. 11101; Public Law 99-660) is amended by adding 
at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(6) Some peer reviewed decisions may be based on factors 
        other than competence or professional conduct. The stated 
        reason for a professional review action may not be the actual 
        reason for the action, and the actual reason may not be 
        apparent from the face of the action. The need to provide 
        incentive and protection for physicians engaging in effective 
        professional peer review must be balanced against the need to 
        protect competent physicians from peer review decisions that 
        are not based on professional competence or conduct.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect as if included in the enactment of the Health Care Quality 
Improvement Act of 1986.
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