SB 497: Provide laws related to healthcare provider burnout - Montana

SB0497_X(2).pdf → SB0497_X(3).pdf · 7 edits

MODERATE

The bill updates the legal framework for reporting health care provider incompetence and unprofessional conduct, clarifying who must report, who is protected from liability, and how specific boards are defined. It adds new requirements for medical assistance programs to report licensees who refuse treatment or pose a risk, while also removing a mandatory reporting obligation for entities participating in wellness programs.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope of mandatory reporting to include medical assistance programs when licensees refuse treatment or pose a risk, and clarifies that professional wellness programs are exempt from federal disclosure laws.

REQUIREMENT

Added a new requirement for medical assistance program personnel to report licensees who fail to comply with treatment requests, refuse recommended treatment, or pose a risk of harm.

Clarified that active participants in professional wellness programs cannot be employed by or have a financial interest in the program.

DEFINITION

Updated the definition of 'Board' to list specific boards (medical, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, behavioral health) and corrected the establishment statute numbers.

Refined the definition of 'Health care provider' to specify that mental health professionals must be defined under a specific statute and removed 'osteopathic medicine' from the list of student programs.

ELIGIBILITY

Removed the requirement that a person or entity must be obligated to report information regarding a health care provider to a licensing board solely because the provider is in a wellness program.

ENFORCEMENT

Established that proceedings related to professional wellness programs are exempt from federal disclosure laws and cannot be used against participants in civil actions.

Changed the standard for disclosing privileged information from requiring a public safety/health factor to simply requiring that the public safety/health factors outweigh privacy rights.

SB0497_2(10).pdf → SB0497_X.pdf · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to clarify that wellness programs must be run by non-profit organizations exempt from federal taxes and to explicitly include students in the definition of 'health care provider' for reporting purposes. The text was also cleaned up to remove all-caps formatting and fix grammatical errors.

Scope change

The scope of the 'health care provider' definition was expanded to include students enrolled in medical, nursing, or dental schools.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'health care provider' was updated to explicitly include students enrolled in medical, osteopathic, nursing, dental, or pharmacy schools, as well as behavioral health educational programs.

The definition of 'professional program' was updated to require that the program be established or contracted for by a statewide association that is exempt from federal income taxes under sections 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code.

TECHNICAL

Removed all-caps formatting and inconsistent capitalization throughout the document to improve readability and standardization.

Corrected grammatical errors and removed redundant words (e.g., changing 'decisions decision' to 'decisions' and 'reasonabl y' to 'reasonably').

SB0497_2(3).pdf → SB0497_2(4).pdf · 1 edit

MINOR

The bill clarifies the definition of 'Board' to explicitly include the boards of medical examiners and dentistry, ensuring these specific entities are covered under the section's rules. A minor formatting adjustment was made to remove unnecessary ellipses from the legal citation.

Scope change

The scope of the bill's definitions was expanded to explicitly include the boards of medical examiners and dentistry.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'Board' was updated to explicitly list the board of medical examiners and the board of dentistry as included entities.

SB0497_1(8).pdf → SB0497_2.pdf · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was renumbered and its text was significantly restructured to clarify that confidential reports about a healthcare provider's incompetence or unprofessional conduct can only be made to their specific licensing board if the provider is participating in a wellness program. The new version adds strict exceptions, stating that information cannot be reported if the provider is NOT in such a program, and it expands the list of protected individuals to include the program's agents and agents of the program.

Scope change

The scope of who is protected from liability and who can receive reports was expanded to include program agents, and the conditions for reporting were made more restrictive regarding the provider's participation in a wellness program.

DEFINITION

Added a specific requirement that a 'professional program' must primarily represent healthcare providers and be tax-exempt, clarifying eligibility criteria.

REQUIREMENT

Modified the reporting rules to explicitly state that information regarding a provider's incompetence should only be reported to their licensing board if the provider is a participant in a professional wellness program.

ELIGIBILITY

Extended civil liability immunity to include the agents and agents of the professional program, not just the committee members and consultants.

ENFORCEMENT

Changed the discovery rules to state that information is not admissible in licensing actions unless the Office of Administrative Hearings determines public safety outweighs privacy.

TECHNICAL

Reformatted the bill header and page numbers, and reorganized the text structure from a continuous narrative to a more structured legal format with subsections.

LC2096.pdf → SB0497_1.pdf · 1 edit

MINOR

The bill text was renumbered and reformatted from a legislative committee version (LC 2096) to a final Senate bill version (SB 497), adding the specific names of the sponsors. The substantive legal text regarding health care provider wellness programs and reporting requirements remains identical, with no changes to policy, scope, or eligibility.

TECHNICAL

The document was renumbered and reformatted to reflect its status as Senate Bill 497, including the addition of sponsor names and page headers, while the actual legal content and definitions remained unchanged.

Provide laws related to healthcare provider burnout

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