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	Amendment (with title amendment)
15	Between lines 2510 and 2511, and insert:
16	Section 55. (1) The Legislature finds that access to
17	quality, affordable health care for all Floridians is a
18	necessary goal for this state and that public teaching hospitals
19	play an essential role in providing access to comprehensive
20	health care services. The Legislature finds that access to
21	quality health care at public teaching hospitals is enhanced
22	when public teaching hospitals affiliate and coordinate their
23	common endeavors with medical schools. These affiliations have
24	proved to be an integral part of the delivery of more efficient
25	and economical health care services to patients of teaching
26	hospitals by offering quality graduate medical education
27	programs to resident physicians who provide patient services at
28	public teaching hospitals and clinics owned by such hospitals.
29	These affiliations ensure continued access to quality
30	comprehensive health care services for Floridians and,
31	therefore, should be encouraged in order to maintain and expand
32	such services. The Legislature finds that when teaching
33	hospitals affiliate or enter into contracts with medical schools
34	to provide comprehensive health care services to patients of
35	teaching hospitals, public teaching hospitals greatly increase
36	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 public 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 public teaching hospitals to permit their
46	employees to provide patient services to patients of public
47	teaching hospitals. This finding is consistent with the report
48	issued in April 2002 by the American Medical Association
49	declaring Florida to be one of 12 states in the midst of a
50	medical liability insurance crisis. The crisis in the
51	availability and affordability of medical malpractice insurance
52	is a contributing factor in the reduction of access to quality
53	health care in this state and has declined significantly. If no
54	corrective action is taken, this health care crisis will lead to
55	a continued reduction of patient services in public teaching
56	hospitals. The Legislature finds that the state's 6 public
57	teaching hospitals provide 70 percent of the state's graduate
58	medical education as reported in the 2001-2002 Report on
59	Graduate Medical Education in Florida: Findings and
60	Recommendations and that the public teaching hospitals ensure
61	the state's future medical manpower. The Legislature finds that
62	the public is better served and will benefit from corrective
63	action to address the foregoing concerns. It is imperative that
64	the Legislature further the public benefit by conferring
65	sovereign immunity upon public teaching hospitals and their
66	employees and agents when public teaching hospitals elect to be
67	agents of the Department of Health as providers of the state's
68	graduate medical education. It is also the intent of the
69	Legislature that employees of public teaching hospitals
70	providing patient services to patients of a public teaching
71	hospital be immune from lawsuits in the same manner and to the
72	same extent as employees and agents of the state, its agencies,
73	and political subdivisions, and further, that they shall not be
74	held personally liable in tort or named as a party defendant in
75	an action while performing patient services except as provided
76	in s. 768.28(9)(a).
77	Section 56. Paragraph (b) of subsection (9) of section
78	768.28, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
79	768.28 Waiver of sovereign immunity in tort actions;
80	recovery limits; limitation on attorney fees; statute of
81	limitations; exclusions; indemnification; risk management
82	programs.--
83	(9)
84	(b) As used in this subsection, the term:
85	1. "Employee" includes any volunteer firefighter.
86	2. "Officer, employee, or agent" includes, but is not
87	limited to:,
88	a. Any receiving facility designated under chapter 394 and
89	any persons operating as employees or agents of the receiving
90	facility when providing emergency treatment to a person who
91	presented himself or herself for examination and treatment in
92	accordance with chapter 394.
93	b.Any health care provider when providing services
94	pursuant to s. 766.1115, any member of the Florida Health
95	Services Corps, as defined in s. 381.0302, who provides
96	uncompensated care to medically indigent persons referred by the
97	Department of Health, and any public defender or her or his
98	employee or agent, including, among others, an assistant public
99	defender and an investigator.
100	c. Any public teaching hospital, as defined in s. 408.07,
101	and any employee or agent of a public teaching hospital who
102	provides patient services to patients at such facility or at a
103	clinic or other facility owned and operated by the public
104	teaching hospital, that elects to be considered as an agent of
105	the Department of Health and indemnifies the state for the
106	reasonable costs of defense and indemnity payments, if any, up
107	to the liability limits set forth in this chapter.
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109	================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T =================
110	Remove line 215, and insert:
111	1, 2004; providing legislative findings and intent; amending s.
112	768.28, F.S.; revising the definition of the term "officer,
113	employee, or agent" to include certain receiving facilities and
114	employees or agents of such facilities and certain public
115	teaching hospitals for purposes of limitation of liability in
116	tort under certain circumstances; providing severability;
117	providing for
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