25 U.S.C. § 1675 — Confidentiality of medical quality assurance records; qualified immunity for participants

(a) Definitions. (1) “Health care provider” means a health professional, including a certified community health aide or practitioner, who has clinical privileges or is employed to provide care at an Indian health program^* or an urban Indian^* organization’s health program and is licensed or certified by a government board or agency or professional health-care society or organization. (2) “Medical quality assurance program” means any activity before, on, or after March 23, 2010, carried out by or for such a program or organization to assess medical-care quality. It includes work by people, medical or dental treatment-review committees, and other review bodies concerning quality assurance, credentials, infection control, patient safety, patient-care assessment including procedures, blood, drugs, and therapeutics, medical records, health-resources management, and identifying and preventing medical or dental incidents and risks. (3) “Medical quality assurance record” means proceedings, records, minutes, and reports arising from those activities and produced or compiled by or for the program or organization as part of the program.
(b) Records created by or for an Indian health program or an urban Indian organization’s health program as part of a medical quality assurance program are confidential and privileged. They may not be disclosed except as subsection (d) allows.
(c) (1) No part of such a record may be discovered or admitted as evidence in a judicial or administrative proceeding except as subsection (d) allows. (2) A person who reviews or creates such records for a program or organization and participates in a proceeding that reviews or creates them may not be allowed or required to testify about the records or about that person’s or body’s finding, recommendation, evaluation, opinion, or action connected with them, except as this section allows.
(d) (1) Subject to paragraph (2), a record may be disclosed and such a person may testify only: (A) to a Federal agency or private organization that needs it for licensing, accreditation, or legally required monitoring of an Indian health program or urban Indian health program; (B) in a proceeding begun by a current or former provider about ending, suspending, or limiting that provider’s clinical privileges; (C) to a government board or agency or professional health-care society or organization that needs it for licensing, credentialing, or monitoring professional standards for a current or former employee provider; (D) to a hospital, medical center, or other health-care institution that needs it to assess the qualifications of a current or former employee who applied for or received authority or employment to provide care in or for the program or organization; (E) to an officer, employee, or contractor of the program or organization that created the record or for which it was created, if that person needs it for official duties; (F) to a criminal or civil law-enforcement agency charged with protecting public health or safety, when a qualified representative makes a written request for a purpose authorized by law; or (G) in a proceeding brought by such an agency, but only about that proceeding’s subject. (2) Before a record is disclosed outside the program or organization, it must have deleted the identity of every health-care recipient and every other person associated with the program or organization for quality-assurance purposes, except the subject of the quality-assurance action.
(e) (1) This section does not authorize or require withholding aggregate statistical information about program results. (2) It does not authorize withholding a record from a House committee, joint congressional committee, or the Government Accountability Office when the record concerns a matter within that body’s jurisdiction.
(f) A person or entity possessing or accessing a covered record or testimony may not disclose its contents in any way or for any purpose except as this section allows. (g) Covered records may not be made available under the Freedom of Information Act, section 552 of title 5. (h) A person who participates in or gives information to a covered review is not civilly liable for that participation or information if it was given in good faith based on professional standards prevailing when the activity occurred. (i) This section does not limit access to information in a record created and kept outside the quality-assurance program, including a patient’s medical records, merely because the information was presented at a review-body meeting. (j) The Secretary^*, through the Service^*, must issue regulations under section 1672. (k) A disclosure under subsection (d) does not allow further disclosure unless subsection (d) or another part of this section authorizes it. (l) If this section conflicts with part C of title IX of the Public Health Service Act, the more protective provisions control. (m) This section remains effective unless a later Federal law specifically provides otherwise.