AN ACT REQUIRING NOTICE OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ACTIONS AND NOTICE TO PATIENTS OF DIAGNOSTIC AND LABORATORY TEST RESULTS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2005) Not later than five business days after service of process is made against a health care provider in a civil action to recover damages resulting from personal injury or wrongful death, whether in tort or in contract, in which it is alleged that such injury or death resulted from the negligence of the health care provider, the plaintiff or the plaintiff's attorney shall cause a copy of such process to be filed with the Connecticut Medical Examining Board established in section 20-8a of the general statutes. For the purposes of this section, "health care provider" means a provider, as defined in subsection (b) of section 20-7b of the general statutes, or an institution, as defined in section 19a-490 of the general statutes.

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2005) Except as provided in section 19a-582 or subsection (d) of section 20-7c of the general statutes, each physician, clinical laboratory, as defined in section 19a-30 of the general statutes, or other health care provider that reports the results of a laboratory or diagnostic test to the health care provider who ordered the test shall mail a report on the results of the test directly to the patient.

Statement of Purpose:

To: (1) Require the plaintiff in a medical malpractice action to file a copy of the service of process against the defendant with the Connecticut Medical Examining Board, and (2) require health care providers and laboratories that perform laboratory or diagnostic tests to send a copy of the results directly to the patient unless certain statutory exceptions apply.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]