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Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to health
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S2671
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, the county law and the civil practice law and rules, in relation to review and investigation of claims of professional medical misconduct or medical malpractice and requirements for the filing of such claims
Summary of provisions
Amends the public health law by adding a new subdivision 12-a to section 230 which will require the Commissioner of Health to develop a program whereby a certain number of malpractice claims brought against a physician will trigger a mandatory review by the Board of Professional Medical Conduct. The Board shall make a determination as to whether further investigation and hearings are necessary. In establishing the program, the Commissioner shall take into account the specifics of a particular physician's practice, including his specialty and the size and scope of his practice.
Justification
In light of the current medical malpractice crisis it is imperative the State take a more active role in removing incompetent or negligent physicians. A recent news story reported a physician with over 30 claims against him. By instituting a procedure which would trigger a mandatory review by the Board of Professional Medical Conduct after a specified number of claims, this bill will help assure that the potentially dangerous physician will not slip through the system.
The bill acknowledges that due to the specialty and the size of one's practice, the likelihood for being subject to a malpractice suit varies greatly. By the nature of their practice, obstetrics and neurosurgeons are subject to higher risk and allegations of malpractice. Consequently, two or three suits filed against a neurosurgeon may be within the realm of acceptability, while the same number of suits against a dermatologist may indicate a problem. Therefore the bill requires the Commissioner to take these factors into account when establishing numerical thresholds.
Since the Board of Professional Medical Conduct currently receives information on every malpractice case that is filed, a centralized data bank processing this information could be created and used for the purposes of this bill.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
180 days after it becomes law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.