Senate Bill No. 170
(By Senator Chafin)
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[Introduced January 11, 2002; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section three, article three-c,
chapter thirty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to permitting
confidential proceedings, testimony and records subject to
subpoena.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article three-c, chapter thirty of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3C. HEALTH CARE PEER REVIEW ORGANIZATION PROTECTION.
§30-3C-3. Confidentiality of review organization's records.
The proceedings and records of a review organization shall
be are confidential and privileged and but shall not be subject
to subpoena or discovery proceedings or be admitted as evidence in any civil action arising out of the matters which are subject
to evaluation and review by such that organization; and no and
any person who was in attendance at a meeting of such that
organization shall may be permitted or required to testify in
any such civil action as to any evidence or other matters
produced or presented during the proceedings of such the
organization or as to any findings, recommendations,
evaluations, opinions or other actions of such the organization
or any members thereof: Provided, That information, documents
or records otherwise available from original sources are not to
be construed as immune from discovery or use in any civil action
merely because they were presented during proceedings of such
the organization, nor should any person who testifies before
such the organization or who is a member of such the
organization be prevented from testifying as to matters within
his or her knowledge, but and the witness shall not may be
asked about his or her testimony before such an that
organization or opinions formed by him or her as a result of
said the organization hearings: Provided, however, That an
individual may execute a valid waiver authorizing the release of
the contents of his or her file pertaining to his or her own
acts or omissions: and such waiver shall remove the
confidentiality and privilege of said contents otherwise provided by this section: Provided further, That upon further
review by any other review organization, upon judicial review of
any finding or determination of a review organization or in any
civil action filed by an individual whose activities have been
reviewed, any testimony, documents, proceedings, records and
other evidence adduced before any such that review organization
shall be available to such any further review organization, the
court and the individual whose activities have been reviewed.
The court shall enter such protective orders as may be
appropriate to provide for the confidentiality of the irrelevant
or unnecessary records provided the court by a review
organization and all papers and records relating to the
proceedings had before the reviewing court.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make confidential
information obtained by a review organization subject to
subpoena.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.