White House Announces Funding for Medical Tort Reform Demonstration Projects
On September 17, 2009, the White House released a “Patient Safety and Medical Liability Reform Demonstration” Fact Sheet, which outlines a new $25 million Department of Health and Human Services initiative designed to help states and health care systems identify new models for managing medical liability claims. The three-pronged initiative will support competitive grants to states and health systems with a focus on the development, implementation and evaluation of alternatives to improve health care quality and patient safety while reducing medical liability.
The Funding Opportunity Announcement will be available within 30 days. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will review applications and make award decisions in early 2010.
The evaluation of the initiative will be released publicly within 18 months of the end of the initiative. The evaluation will focus on short-term improvements in both patient safety and medical liability systems with an allowance for long-term assessment of improvements as well.
