Alongside the Take Back Our Hospitals Act, Murphy and Scanlon are also introducing The Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act to grant health care workers whistleblower protections, ensuring they can report misconduct and neglect at private equity-owned health care facilities without fear of retaliation.
Grant health care workers whistleblower protections to allow reporting of misconduct and neglect at private equity-owned health care facilities without fear of retaliation.
Occurrences
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.-05) introduced The Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act, which provides legal protections for health care whistleblowers who speak out publicly on patient safety concerns.
Evidence
On March 23, 2026, Senator Chris Murphy and Representative Mary Gay Scanlon introduced the Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act, aiming to provide legal protections for health care workers who report patient safety concerns. This legislation addresses the lack of existing protections for health care workers who expose threats to patient safety at health care facilities.
On March 23, 2026, Senator Murphy released a report titled 'Aided and Abetted: How the Trump Administration is Helping Private Equity Take Over Health Care,' detailing the detrimental impact of private equity on health care facilities. Concurrently, he introduced the Take Back Our Hospitals Act to ban private equity from owning hospitals and nursing homes, aiming to protect patient care from profit-driven practices.
In an interview on April 10, 2026, Senator Murphy discussed his legislative efforts to limit private equity ownership of hospitals and nursing homes, emphasizing the need to protect patient care from profit-driven entities. He highlighted the introduction of the Take Back Our Hospitals Act as a measure to prevent private equity firms from owning and controlling health care facilities.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy and U.S. Representative Mary Gay Scanlon introduced The Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act, providing legal protections for health care whistleblowers who report patient safety concerns.
Senator Murphy introduced S. 4086, the Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act, which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Assessments
Senator Murphy introduced the Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act along with related legislative efforts to protect health care workers who report misconduct at health care facilities owned by private equity. Multiple secondary sources confirm the introduction and active promotion of these bills, but no evidence was provided that the legislation was enacted into law or that the protections were successfully implemented. Thus, significant effort was made within the same term, but the promise was only partially fulfilled due to lack of final legislative success.
Senator Murphy introduced relevant legislation (the Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act) aimed at granting health care workers whistleblower protections for reporting misconduct at health care facilities, specifically in the context of private equity ownership. Although this reflects a serious and direct legislative attempt to fulfill the campaign promise, there is no evidence the bill was enacted or the protections were ultimately delivered. Therefore, the promise was not delivered, but significant legislative effort is substantiated by multiple credible sources.
Senator Murphy introduced the Patient Safety and Whistleblower Protections Act, specifically aimed at granting whistleblower protections to health care workers, and the Take Back Our Hospitals Act to limit private equity involvement in health care facilities. Both pieces of legislation were introduced in the relevant term, demonstrating a substantive legislative attempt. However, there is no evidence that these bills were enacted or that the promised protections were delivered in practice. The effort is clear, but the promised outcome was not achieved.