HOUSE AMENDMENT Bill No. HB 63B
1	CHAMBER ACTION
2	Senate House
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12	Representative Murman offered the following:
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14	Substitute Amendment for Amendment (956975) (with directory
15	and title amendments)
16	Between lines 2510 and 2511, and insert:
17	Section 55. (1) The Legislature finds that access to
18	quality, affordable health care for all Floridians is a
19	necessary goal for this state and that teaching hospitals play
20	an essential role in providing access to comprehensive health
21	care services. The Legislature finds that access to quality
22	health care at teaching hospitals is enhanced when teaching
23	hospitals affiliate and coordinate their common endeavors with
24	medical schools. These affiliations have proved to be an
25	integral part of the delivery of more efficient and economical
26	health care services to patients of teaching hospitals by
27	offering quality graduate medical education programs to resident
28	physicians who provide patient services at teaching hospitals
29	and clinics owned by such hospitals. These affiliations ensure
30	continued access to quality comprehensive health care services
31	for Floridians and, therefore, should be encouraged in order to
32	maintain and expand such services. The Legislature finds that
33	when teaching hospitals affiliate or enter into contracts with
34	medical schools to provide comprehensive health care services to
35	patients of teaching hospitals, teaching hospitals greatly
36	increase their exposure to claims arising out of alleged medical
37	malpractice and other allegedly negligent acts because some
38	public teaching hospital employees and agents do not have the
39	same level of protection against liability claims as colleges
40	and universities with medical schools and their employees
41	providing the same patient services to the same teaching
42	hospital patients. The Legislature finds that the high cost of
43	litigation, unequal liability exposure, and increased medical
44	malpractice insurance premiums have adversely impacted the
45	ability of some teaching hospitals to permit their employees to
46	provide patient services to patients of teaching hospitals. This
47	finding is consistent with the report issued in April 2002 by
48	the American Medical Association declaring Florida to be one of
49	12 states in the midst of a medical liability insurance crisis.
50	The crisis in the availability and affordability of medical
51	malpractice insurance is a contributing factor in the reduction
52	of access to quality health care in this state and has declined
53	significantly. If no corrective action is taken, this health
54	care crisis will lead to a continued reduction of patient
55	services in public teaching hospitals. The Legislature finds
56	that the state's teaching hospitals provide a majority of the
57	state's graduate medical education as reported in the 2001-2002
58	Report on Graduate Medical Education in Florida: Findings and
59	Recommendations and that the teaching hospitals ensure the
60	state's future medical manpower. The Legislature finds that the
61	public is better served and will benefit from corrective action
62	to address the foregoing concerns. It is imperative that the
63	Legislature further the public benefit by conferring sovereign
64	immunity upon teaching hospitals and their employees and agents
65	when teaching hospitals elect to be agents of the Department of
66	Health as providers of the state's graduate medical education.
67	It is also the intent of the Legislature that employees of
68	teaching hospitals providing patient services to patients of a
69	teaching hospital be immune from lawsuits in the same manner and
70	to the same extent as employees and agents of the state, its
71	agencies, and political subdivisions, and further, that they
72	shall not be held personally liable in tort or named as a party
73	defendant in an action while performing patient services except
74	as provided in s. 768.28(9)(a).
75	Section 56. Paragraph (b) of subsection (9) of section
76	768.28, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
77	768.28 Waiver of sovereign immunity in tort actions;
78	recovery limits; limitation on attorney fees; statute of
79	limitations; exclusions; indemnification; risk management
80	programs.--
81	(9)
82	(b) As used in this subsection, the term:
83	1. "Employee" includes any volunteer firefighter.
84	2. "Officer, employee, or agent" includes, but is not
85	limited to:,
86	a. Any receiving facility designated under chapter 394 and
87	any persons operating as employees or agents of the receiving
88	facility when providing emergency treatment to a person who
89	presented himself or herself for examination and treatment in
90	accordance with chapter 394.
91	b.Any health care provider when providing services
92	pursuant to s. 766.1115, any member of the Florida Health
93	Services Corps, as defined in s. 381.0302, who provides
94	uncompensated care to medically indigent persons referred by the
95	Department of Health, and any public defender or her or his
96	employee or agent, including, among others, an assistant public
97	defender and an investigator.
98	c. Any hospital which is either:
99	(I) A teaching hospital, as defined in s. 408.07;
100	(II) A hospital participating under the provisions of s.
101	381.0403; or
102	(III) A hospital designated as a family practice teaching
103	hospital under the provisions of s. 395.806:
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105	and any employee or agent of such hospital who provides patient
106	services to patients at the hospital facility or at a clinic or
107	other facility owned and operated by the hospital, which
108	hospital elects to be considered as an agent of the Department
109	of Health and indemnifies the state for the reasonable costs of
110	defense and indemnity payments, if any, up to the liability
111	limits set forth in this chapter.
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113	================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T =================
114	Remove line 215, and insert:
115	1, 2004; providing legislative findings and intent; amending s.
116	768.28, F.S.; revising the definition of the term "officer,
117	employee, or agent" to include certain receiving facilities and
118	certain teaching hospitals and employees or agents of such
119	facilities for purposes of limitation of liability in tort under
120	certain circumstances; providing severability; providing for