The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #55092

Ross D. Silverman, JD, MPH, Department of Medical Humanities, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, P.O. Box 19603, Springfield, IL 62794-9603, 217-545-4261, rsilverman@siumed.edu

The medical malpractice insurance crisis has helped fuel interest in policies to encourage and enhance patient safety. A central aspect of many federal and state-based patient safety proposals is the implementation of programs requiring confidential, anonymized reporting of medical errors and near misses to a centralized database. Only through guaranteeing anonymity, it is argued, can provider participation be assured. Concomitantly, some interested in finding new ways to contain the rising costs of health insurance are now considering "consumer directed health insurance" as a way both to allow private employers to continue to offer their employees health coverage and to place a larger burden for weighing treatment options directly onto the shoulders of the end user. To ensure truly informed decision making, consumers will need to have access not only to cost-related data, but also information about the quality of the physicians and health care systems into which they will enter. This presentation will discuss the conflicts and common ground available when attempting to reconcile these two issues.

Learning Objectives:

• To describe how patient safety proposals that rely upon confidential reporting may jeopardize implementation of insurance programs reliant upon fully informed health care consumers.

Keywords: Safety, Health Law

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.