HB 320 Summary

• Designates December as "Free Clinic Appreciation Month" and requires the Department of Health to maintain a website with free clinic information, including directories, descriptions, and notices of new clinic openings.

• Defines "free clinic" as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides free or minimal-fee health care services through volunteer health care professionals and voluntary care networks.

• Designates all free clinics as health resource shortage areas for physicians and dental health resource shortage areas for dentists, making them eligible for state loan repayment programs regardless of geographic location.

• Creates volunteer's certificates for retired nurses, physicians, and dentists to provide services to indigent and uninsured persons at any location including free clinics, with no fees charged for issuance or renewal.

• Extends qualified immunity from civil liability for volunteer health care providers serving Medicaid-eligible or Medicaid-recipient individuals, but limits this immunity to services provided in free clinics for those specific populations.