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Bill would transfer health cash funds to sustain Nebraska Coalition for Patient Safety
Summary
LB1106 would transfer $300,000 annually from the health care cash fund to the Patient Safety Cash Fund to replace expiring licensure fees that previously supported the Nebraska Coalition for Patient Safety (NCPS); physicians, insurers and NCPS leaders testified the funds support confidential reporting, root‑cause analysis training, and statewide learning that reduce preventable harm.
Senator Jason Prokop introduced LB1106 to authorize an annual $300,000 transfer from the health care cash fund into the Patient Safety Cash Fund to sustain the Nebraska Coalition for Patient Safety (NCPS) after licensure fees sunset in 2025. Prokop said the transfer would preserve NCPS’s core work — confidential aggregation and analysis of adverse events, shared learnings, and education — and would be a modest, responsible use of health‑care‑designated funds.
Dr. Jason Krueger (emergency medicine physician and NCPS board member) recounted the 2002 Fremont hepatitis C outbreak and said the subsequent Patient Safety Improvement Act led to the formation of NCPS in 2006. Carla Snyder, executive director of NCPS, described monthly event reporting (almost 143,000 events reported since 2020), regional trainings, root‑cause facilitation for smaller hospitals, and a low membership fee structure intended to keep critical access hospitals participating. Snyder said NCPS currently estimated an operating need in the $350,000–400,000 range and that the requested $300,000 from the cash fund would roughly replace part of the prior licensure fee revenue stream.
Medical liability insurer COPIC and other clinical leaders testified in support, stressing NCPS’s role in preventing medication errors, falls and other harms. Committee members asked why licensure fees were not extended; proponents said prior attempts to broaden licensure assessments across many license types proved difficult and risked discouraging participation. NCPS leaders said member fees remain in place but the licensure fee sunset leaves a funding gap that the proposed cash‑fund transfer would help fill.
