Health care peer review bill advances

A bill that would address confidentiality in the health care peer review process advanced from general file March 28.

LB431, introduced by Kearney Sen. Galen Hadley, would adopt the Health Care Quality Improvement Act, which is intended to protect individuals and the confidentiality of records during a peer review process.

Hadley said Nebraska law should be updated to accommodate the state’s wide range in hospital size and to help health care providers improve the quality of care. He said the bill would provide more peer review committee options while maintaining protections for those who participate in the process.

Under the bill, no health care provider, individual or employee who serves on a peer review committee would be held liable for activities within the scope the committee. In addition, no individual who supplies information to a peer review committee would be subject to legal action as a result of the information.

A Health and Human Services Committee amendment, adopted 34-0, clarifies that the bill would provide immunity only to individuals who act without malice. The amendment also specifies that a peer review committee must be created by the governing board of a health care facility and adds officers, directors, employees and members of governing boards to the list of protected individuals under the bill’s provisions.

Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island supported the bill and the amendment, saying the peer review process allows health care professionals to ask each other difficult questions about treatment decisions.

“This is an issue of professionals learning how to provide better care,” he said.

LB431 also would clarify that a peer review committee process is confidential and not subject to discovery or evidence in a civil action and that no person working with a committee would be allowed or compelled to testify in a civil action.

Finally, the bill stipulates that an incident or risk management report would not be subject to discovery or admissible as evidence in a civil action for damages for injury, death or loss to a patient. A person who prepares or has knowledge of the contents of an incident or risk management report could not testify as to the contents of the report in any civil action.

An amendment offered by Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop, adopted 32-1, clarifies that only documents created specifically for the peer review process would be excluded from discovery in a civil action.

Senators voted 39-0 to advance the bill.