People in Illinois should soon be able to find out if their doctors were ever guilty of Medical Malpractice. That’s part of a new bill, the Patients’ Right to Know Act, that the governor is expected to sign. The Illinois General Assembly passed the bill Tuesday.

As reported by the Chicago Tribune in the article, “Patients’ Right to Know Act Passes Assembly,” the bill also would give people information about whether an Illinois doctor was ever fired or found guilty of a crime or made a Medical Malpractice payment in the last 5 years. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation would compile the doctors’ histories and make them public by putting them on its website.

Illinois lawmakers have been focusing on Medical Malpractice reform and patients’ rights in recent years. Just last year, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that caps on Medical Malpractice or Medical Negligence awards were not constitutional. Those caps had been in place due to a 2005 law which placed awards at $500,000 for non-economic damages against doctors and a million dollars against hospitals.