[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4086 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4086
To establish protections for health care providers who raise concerns
about the quality of health care services, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 12, 2026
Mr. Murphy introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish protections for health care providers who raise concerns
about the quality of health care services, 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 ``Patient Safety and Whistleblower
Protections Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) The term ``communicate'', with respect to health care
safety information, includes written or oral communications.
(2) The term ``government official'' means any local,
State, Tribal, or Federal governmental official, including
municipal mayors and their staff, State governors and their
staff, State legislators and their staff, Federal legislators
and their staff, and staff or leaders of Federal agencies or
other Federal authorities.
(3) The term ``health care facility'' means a facility in
which health care services are provided, including any
hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, skilled nursing
facilities, home health agencies, clinics, urgent care centers,
physician offices, dental offices, end-stage renal facilities,
chiropractic offices, optometry offices, ophthalmology offices,
nursing homes, behavioral health centers, community mental
health centers, addiction treatment facilities, rehabilitation
centers, hospices, outpatient therapy facilities, and
federally-qualified health centers.
(4) The term ``health care practitioner'' means an
individual who is licensed by a State, or otherwise authorized,
to provide health care services.
(5) The term ``health care service'' means care, treatment,
services, or other procedures to maintain, diagnose, or
otherwise affect an individual's physical or mental condition.
Such term includes medical, paramedical, nursing, chiropractic,
dental, behavioral, psychiatric, psychological, and vision
services.
(6) The term ``patient safety concern'' means a
communication regarding a concern that materially affects the
health of one of more patients or that has the potential to
materially affect the health of one or more patients, including
a concern about--
(A) the quality of health care, patient safety, or
staffing practices, such as the type of health care
practitioner caring for patients or the number of
patients for whom a health care practitioner is
responsible; or
(B) the sufficiency of equipment or supplies for
the health care services provided, or the
appropriateness of health care services or referrals
for patients.
(7) The term ``retaliation'' means any adverse employment
action against a health care practitioner or any other
materially adverse action that would dissuade a reasonable
health care practitioner from raising patient safety concerns,
including adverse actions against a health care practitioner
who is no longer employed by, contracting with, or otherwise
providing health care services at the health facility to which
the patient safety concerns relate.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON RETALIATION.
(a) In General.--A health care facility may not retaliate against a
health care practitioner for communicating about patient safety
concerns, including any written or oral patient safety concerns
communicated to--
(1) any supervisors, colleagues, or another individuals
with authority over health care services or the clinical or
financial operations of the health care facility;
(2) a State authority with oversight of health care
services, health care practitioners, or health care facilities;
(3) a government official, including communications at a
hearing, in response to written or oral questions from
government officials, or in a meeting, phone call, email, or
other communication;
(4) a patient safety organization, as defined in section
921 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 299b-21);
(5) any individual, organization, or other body
investigating patient safety concerns in response to a
communication made by another health care practitioner; or
(6) only after 90 days following a communication to a
person described in paragraphs (1), (2), or (4) that did not
result in significant corrective action, to the news media or
press.
(b) Rebuttable Presumption.--There shall be a rebuttable
presumption that any adverse employment action or other materially
adverse action against the health care practitioner within 180 days of
the health care practitioner communicating about patient safety
concerns is retaliation.
(c) Attribution to Health Care Facility.--Any retaliation by a
health care practitioner, manager, supervisor, executive, staffing
company, provider organization that contracts to provide services at
the health care facility, or management services company shall be
attributed to the health care facility that is the subject of patient
safety concerns. A health care facility may seek indemnification or
contribution from a staffing company, provider organization that
contracts to provide services at the health care facility, or
management services company for retaliation attributed to the health
care facility under this subsection.
(d) Clarification.--Nothing in this section prohibits any adverse
employment action or other materially adverse action against a health
care practitioner that is not in retaliation for communicating about
patient safety concerns.
(e) Inapplicability of Certain Contractual Provisions.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any contractual provision
that would prohibit a provider from communicating about patient safety
concerns, or otherwise speaking truthfully about the quality of health
care services, shall be null and void.
(f) Inapplicability of Non-Competition Provisions.--A health care
practitioner who communicates about patient safety concerns shall be
released from any existing non-competition agreement with the employer
or contractor of the health care practitioner if the non-competition
agreement relates to the health care practitioner's employment or
contract work at the health facility that is the subject of patient
safety concerns.
(g) Bad Faith Communications.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed as prohibiting a civil lawsuit against a health care
practitioner who communicated about patient safety concerns in bad
faith, if an independent investigation has determined that the patient
safety concerns were not valid.
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT.
(a) Individual Actions.--
(1) In general.--A health care facility that retaliates
against a health care practitioner for communicating patient
safety concerns is liable to that practitioner in an amount
equal to the sums determined in paragraph (2).
(2) Damages.--In an individual action under paragraph (1),
the sum awarded for liability is equal to--
(A) actual damage sustained by the health care
practitioner;
(B) attorney's fees and costs; and
(C) punitive damages of up to $1,000,000.
(b) Class Actions.--
(1) In general.--Class actions are authorized for health
care practitioners who communicate patient safety concerns at
the same health care facility or at different health care
facilities under the same management or ownership. The subject
of patient safety concerns or the form of retaliation need not
be identical to establish a common scheme of retaliating
against health care practitioners who communicate patient
safety concerns.
(2) Damages.--In a class action under paragraph (1), the
sum awarded for liability is equal to--
(A) the greater of $10,000 or actual damages for
each named individual;
(B) a total amount for all other class members,
without regard to a minimum individual recovery amount,
of the greatest of--
(i) actual damages;
(ii) $500,000;
(iii) 1 percent of the net worth of the
defendant health care facility; or
(iv) if the defendant health care facility
is fully owned, directly or indirectly, by
another entity or entities, and, among all such
entities that own such facility, the entity
with the highest net worth owns at least 1
other health care facility at which retaliation
for raising patient safety concerns is alleged
in another action under this section or in a
complaint described in subsection (d)(1), 1
percent of the net worth of such entity with
the highest net worth that owns the health care
facility; and
(C) attorney's fees and costs.
(c) Statute of Limitations.--Any action alleging retaliation for
communicating patient safety concerns under this section may be
commenced not later than 3 years after the last action that is alleged
to be retaliatory occurs.
(d) Requirements Prior To Bring an Action.--An action alleging
retaliation for communicating patient safety concerns may be filed--
(1) after the health care practitioner--
(A) files a complaint with the State authority that
licenses or otherwise oversees the health care facility
that is the subject of the complaint; and
(B) in the case that the health facility that is
the subject of patient safety concerns is a hospital,
files a complaint with the Joint Commission on Hospital
Accreditation; and
(2) not earlier than the date on which--
(A) the State authority described in paragraph
(1)(A) completes its investigation pursuant to such
paragraph, and, as applicable, the Joint Commission on
Hospital Accreditation described in paragraph (1)(B)
completes its investigation pursuant to such paragraph;
or
(B) 180 days after the filing of a complaint under
paragraph (1)(A) and, if applicable, a complaint under
paragraph (1)(B).
SEC. 5. PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY ACTIONS.
In any civil or criminal action against a health care facility or
health care practitioner relating to professional liability,
communications about patient safety concerns made by the health care
practitioner that is the subject of the civil or criminal action may
not be used to draw an adverse inference about the quality of health
care services provided by the health care practitioner. The preceding
sentence shall only apply if communications about patient safety
concerns were made by the health care practitioner prior to the filing
of the civil or criminal action against the health care facility or
health care practitioner.
SEC. 6. REQUIRING THE REPORTING AND RESOLUTION OF PATIENT SAFETY
CONCERNS FOR PROVIDERS OF SERVICES PARTICIPATING IN
MEDICARE.
(a) In General.--Section 1866(a)(1) of the Social Security Act (42
U.S.C. 1395cc(a)(1)) is amended--
(1) by moving subparagraphs (W) and (X) 2 ems to the left;
(2) in subparagraph (X), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(3) in subparagraph (Y), by striking the period at the end
and inserting ``, and''; and
(4) by inserting after subparagraph (Y) the following new
subparagraph:
``(Z) to establish--
``(i) a mechanism that allows a health care
provider or practitioner to anonymously report patient
safety concerns; and
``(ii) a process for investigating and addressing
any patient safety concern reported to the provider of
services.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall
take effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act.
SEC. 7. IMPACT ON OTHER LAWS WITH RESPECT TO REPORTING PATIENT SAFETY
CONCERNS.
Nothing in this Act, including the amendments made by this Act,
shall be construed to limit or supersede the protections for health
care providers with respect to reporting patient safety events pursuant
to part C of title IX of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 299b-
21 et seq.) or any other Federal or State law on patient safety
reporting.
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