Bill to make detailed IL doctors’ histories available moves to Senate
According to a recent Chicago Tribune article, a bill (Patients’ Right to Know Act) in Illinois that has already made its way through the House and is on its way to the Senate could allow patients to view detailed histories of their doctor online for free.
The information would include whether the physician has been fired, convicted of a crime or has made a medical malpractice payment within the past five years. Currently the only information available is whether the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has disciplined a physician.
The doctors lobby argued that the online physician profiles would drain state resources, even though a fiscal analysis showed that they would cost as little as $40,250 to maintain. The lobby has said the information is already available elsewhere on the Internet, but there is no single place that provides it free of charge, and patients must comb though court records to discover medical malpractice settlements or criminal convictions.
