ALBANY, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) – Some New York health care providers have lost protections from lawsuits that were originally granted to them during the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s because New York lawmakers have passed and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed S8835, which repeals liability-limiting measures implemented in the state’s budget during the early stages of the pandemic.
The law changes which health care services are eligible for immunity from liability by removing “prevention” of COVID-19 from the definition of those services.
It also clarifies that immunity applies to the assessment or care of a coronavirus patient.
Though few lawmakers stood against it, it found critics on both sides. For the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, it went too far.
“Without these protections, personal injury law firms and litigation financiers, a sector that sees rising earnings forecasts due to expectations that COVID-19 will give rise to profitable lawsuits, will undoubtedly file a flood of speculative civil suits against our medical professionals and facilities,” LRANY executive director Tom Stebbins said.
State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a Democrat, said she voted against it because it didn’t go far enough.
“(I)t fails to provide New Yorkers with the justice they deserve,” she said.
“S8835 only addresses COVID-related cases prospectively and restores the protections that existed prior to the pandemic for just non-COVID cases moving forward.
“Not only does this fail to give recourse to the thousands of families who have lost loved ones to COVID, it does not account for the budget language that retroactively took away the rights of New Yorkers who visited a doctor for non-COVID-related care.”
Liability protection remains a hot issue in both state legislatures and in Congress. Last week, the American Medical Association asked federal lawmakers in a letter signed by hundreds of other groups for help from coronavirus lawsuits.
(O)ur members and constituencies remain concerned that, despite doing their best to follow applicable government guidelines, they will be forced to defend against an onslaught of frivolous lawsuits,” says the letter, led by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, which owns Legal Newsline.
“Unfortunately, this concern has already begun to materialize.”