On November 21, 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a final rule to implement certain aspects of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Patient Safety Act). By way of background, the Patient Safety Act is designed to encourage health care providers to voluntarily report patient safety information, medical errors, and “near misses” to Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs). In order to facilitate such disclosure, the law creates certain legal privilege and confidentiality protections for any patient safety work product (PSWP) either developed by a PSO or prepared by a health care provider and delivered to a PSO. The final rule establishes a framework by which hospitals, doctors, and other health care providers may voluntarily report information to PSOs, on a privileged and confidential basis, for the aggregation and analysis of patient safety events. The regulation outlines the requirements that entities must meet to become PSOs and the processes by which the Secretary will review and accept certifications and list PSOs. It also describes the privilege and confidentiality protections for the information that is assembled and developed by providers and PSOs, the exceptions to these privilege and confidentiality protections, and the procedures for the imposition of civil money penalties for the knowing or reckless impermissible disclosure of patient safety work product. The final rule is effective January 19, 2009. When the final rule goes into effect, it will supersede interim guidance released October 14, 2008, although any information that became PSWP under the interim guidance criteria will remain PSWP, and thus privileged and confidential, after the interim period.