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Panel advances bill to extend peer‑review confidentiality protections across health systems
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Summary
Senate Bill 124, revised with friendly amendments, would let integrated health systems share peer‑review information across member hospitals while preserving confidentiality and discovery protections; the committee adopted an amendment and reported the bill favorable as amended.
Senator Talbot introduced Senate Bill 124 on April 8, saying the bill would modernize Louisiana’s peer‑review statute to allow health systems to conduct system‑level peer review and share findings across hospitals while maintaining confidentiality and liability protections.
John Puccio of LCMC Health told the committee the amendments are friendly and do not change the bill’s substance; the core change is to allow system‑wide access to peer‑review information so hospitals in the same system can benefit from quality‑improvement work without waiving existing peer‑review privilege.
During questioning, Senator Pressley pressed whether the change would expand discovery protections to apply automatically to all facilities in a system or whether it merely permits access while preserving confidentiality. Puccio and a hospital representative said the intent was not to expand the scope of protected material but to allow access to information across hospitals while retaining privilege protections.
The committee adopted Amendment 17‑91 by voice vote. Multiple hospitals and associations were recorded in favor; Greg Waddell of the Louisiana Hospital Association switched to wishing to speak. Carrie Jones, a health‑law specialist with Brazilsack C. and Wilson, testified the bill ‘‘at its core is a patient safety bill’’ because information sharing across systems can reveal patterns and address risks earlier while preserving accountability.
The committee reported SB124 favorable as amended by voice vote. Members agreed to continue clarifying technical questions about discovery protections between the committee and the floor as needed.
