COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 634
(By Senators Kessler, Minard, Edgell, Bowman, McKenzie, Anderson,
Facemyer, Hunter, Deem, Boley, Sharpe, Helmick, Fanning,
Prezioso, Unger, Ross, Minear, Bailey and McCabe)
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[Originating in the Committee on Government Organization;
reported April 4, 2001.]
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A BILL to amend article twenty-b, chapter thirty-three of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
ten, relating to establishing a medical malpractice insurance
study task force.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article twenty-b, chapter thirty-three of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section ten, to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 20B. RATES AND MALPRACTICE INSURANCE POLICIES.
§33-20B-10. Medical malpractice insurance study task force.
(a) The medical malpractice insurance study task force is
hereby created to secure information and make its findings and
recommendations to the governor and the Legislature regarding the
factors affecting the cost of medical malpractice insurance to
health care providers in West Virginia.
(b) The task force will have eleven members: The insurance
commissioner or his or her designee; a physician licensed to
practice medicine in West Virginia; a licensed administrator of a
West Virginia hospital; two attorneys licensed to practice and
actively practicing law in this state, one of whom must be a member
of the West Virginia trial lawyers association; a professor of law
teaching at West Virginia university with an expertise in insurance
law; the president of the West Virginia Senate or his or her
designee; the speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates or
his or her designee; a representative of the medical malpractice
insurance industry; and two members from the public at large who
are advocates for consumer rights. The governor shall appoint the
members to the medical malpractice insurance study task force no
later than the first day of June, two thousand one, and the task force shall have its first meeting no later than the first day of
July, two thousand one.
(c) Members of the medical malpractice insurance study task
force shall receive no compensation for their service on the task
force.
(d) The medical malpractice insurance study task force shall
make a written report on the factors affecting the cost of medical
malpractice insurance to health care providers in West Virginia to
the governor and the Legislature no later than the first day of
January, two thousand two.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide the Legislature
and the governor with sufficient data to enable them to determine
what, if any, executive or legislative action might be necessary to
alleviate the high cost of medical malpractice insurance.
§33-20B-10 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.)