Before the Joint Committee on Health Care
Financing
The Massachusetts Medical Society wishes to be recorded in
strong support of Senate Bill 513, "An Act Providing for the
Information Submitted by Hospital Medical Staff," legislation aimed
at protecting the privacy of information disclosed by physicians
and other health care professionals as members of hospital medical
staff, or, in application to join a hospital medical staff.
The quality of the delivery of health care services in a
hospital depends on many factors, including the competence and
commitment of both the hospital staff and the hospital
administration. In Massachusetts, a key factor in assuring
quality has also been the existence of professional hospital
medical staff organizations - organizations of physicians and other
practitioners with privileges at a hospital who are governed by
their own by-laws.
The intent of this legislation is to assure the privacy of
information submitted by physicians and other health professionals
when they seek to join a hospital medical staff. Many
hospitals have adopted conflict of interest policies mandating that
physicians and other health care professionals disclose their own
(and sometimes their families' and partners') personal and
financial information as a prerequisite for granting admitting
privileges or for assuming a medical staff leadership
position. This information is very detailed and can include
proprietary business, ownership and income information.
While hospitals may have the right to ask for such information,
it is critical to those providing the information be assured that
its confidentiality be maintained and that the data be used only
for the purposes for which it was requested. That
confidentiality is currently not guaranteed. This legislation
would explicitly protect information submitted by physicians and
health care professionals from misuse or inappropriate
dissemination by establishing a cause of action for damages and/or
equitable relief.
We urge the Committee to report out this measure favorably.
