SB 886 Summary

• Allows patient medical records to be furnished to health care providers' attorneys without prior written authorization for purposes of obtaining legal services in medical negligence cases.

• Requires claimants to prove by clear and convincing evidence that a health care provider's failure to order, perform, or administer supplemental diagnostic tests breached the prevailing professional standard of care.

• Restricts expert witness testimony on medical negligence to health care providers in the same specialty as the defendant, removing allowances for similar specialties, and eliminates a provision limiting the trial court's power to disqualify experts.

• Permits prospective defendants and their attorneys to conduct ex parte interviews with claimants' treating health care providers as informal discovery and authorizes ex parte interviews in the authorization for release of protected health information.

• Authorizes health care providers and health care clinics to enter into binding arbitration agreements with patients to resolve medical negligence claims, which may include damage limitations.

• Extends liability limitations to hospitals under chapter 395, preventing liability for medical negligence of non-employee health care providers unless the hospital expressly directs or controls the specific conduct causing injury.