SENATE PASSES LEGISLATION ENABLING CONSUMERS TO EASILY OBTAIN INFORMAITON ON BACKGROUNDS AND QUALIFICATIONS OF MEDICAL PROVIDERS IN CONNECTICUT
The Connecticut Chiropractic Association (CCA) today hailed the Senate’s passage of legislation that will enable consumers to easily obtain information from a state web site on the backgrounds and qualifications of a wide range of medical providers in Connecticut.
The legislation, Senate Bill 1448, will extend to eight medical professions the current law that requires physicians to submit detailed information on their education, medical practice and malpractice history to the state Department of Public Health for posting on the agency’s web site.
“Consumers will benefit from this new law since it will enable them to receive more in-depth information on medical practitioners in Connecticut. In particular, the information will enable the public to know whether or not a provider has a history of malpractice claims,” said Matt N. Pagano, D.C., the group’s president.
“The more information that consumers and patients have about medical providers, the better,” Pagano said.
The professions added to the current physician’s profile law include dentists, chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists, natureopaths, dental hygienists, advanced practice registered nurses and physical therapists. The Senate passed the legislation unanimously today and it now goes to the House for a vote that is expected to occur within the next few days.
SB 1448, An Act Extending the State Physician Profile and Related Malpractice Reporting Requirements to Certain Other Health Care Providers, is the second piece of “consumer friendly” medical legislation to pass in recent weeks. Governor Rell recently signed into law a measure which relates to the collection and reporting of malpractice claims data by the state Insurance Department.
“The Connecticut Chiropractic Association strongly supports both pieces of legislation. As the data on malpractice claims and payments is collected and released to the public, I am confident it will show the Chiropractic profession in a very favorable light,” Pagano said.
The average premium for a full-coverage liability policy for Chiropractors in Connecticut is $3,000 a year. This provides up to $1 million in coverage for any single claim and $3 million for all claims against the policy.
“The best indicator of how safe a medical profession is can be found in what its members pay for malpractice insurance. Rates for Chiropractors are very reasonable and this clearly is indicative that our profession has not been part of the malpractice problem,” Pagano said.
SB 1448 was initially proposed to require that the profiling information be collected from only Chiropractors—an approach that was overwhelmingly rejected by members of the Judiciary Committee.
“From Day One, the Chiropractic profession has stated that we would support more information on the qualifications of health care providers as well as their malpractice claims so long as this requirement was extended equally to all professions. SB 1448 meets this test,” Pagano said.
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