78B-3-402. Legislative findings and declarations -- Purpose of act.
(1) The Legislature finds and declares that the number of suits and claims for damages
and the amount of judgments and settlements arising from health care has increased greatly in
recent years. Because of these increases the insurance industry has substantially increased the
cost of medical malpractice insurance. The effect of increased insurance premiums and increased
claims is increased health care cost, both through the health care providers passing the cost of
premiums to the patient and through the provider's practicing defensive medicine because he
views a patient as a potential adversary in a lawsuit. Further, certain health care providers are
discouraged from continuing to provide services because of the high cost and possible
unavailability of malpractice insurance.
(2) In view of these recent trends and with the intention of alleviating the adverse effects
which these trends are producing in the public's health care system, it is necessary to protect the
public interest by enacting measures designed to encourage private insurance companies to
continue to provide health-related malpractice insurance while at the same time establishing a
mechanism to ensure the availability of insurance in the event that it becomes unavailable from
private companies.
(3) In enacting this act, it is the purpose of the Legislature to provide a reasonable time in
which actions may be commenced against health care providers while limiting that time to a
specific period for which professional liability insurance premiums can be reasonably and
accurately calculated; and to provide other procedural changes to expedite early evaluation and
settlement of claims.
Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 3, 2008 General Session
Download Code Section Zipped WordPerfect 78B03_040200.ZIP 2,469 Bytes
Sections in this Chapter|Chapters in this Title|All Titles|Legislative Home Page
Last revised: Thursday, May 28, 2009