This bill, introduced to the Senate by Senators Clinton (D-NY) and Obama (D-IL), proposes a program under the direction of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to a) require hospitals to disclose errors to patients and offer reasonable financial settlements where appropriate; b) create a national patient safety database, comprised of confidential reports from health care institutions; and c) protect any statements about and apologies for errors that providers make to patients from being used in a later malpractice action.