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.