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Health care providers granted immunity from civil liability

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Illinois

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

Without fanfare last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a sweeping executive order (2020-19) granting many health care providers immunity from civil liability during the COVID-19 crisis.

If medical facilities, community-integrated living facilities, community mental health centers and others are providing COVID-19 health care services, they cannot be sued “for any injury or death alleged to have been caused by any act or omission by the Health Care Facility, which injury or death occurred at a time when a Health Care Facility was engaged in the course of rendering assistance to the State by providing health care services in response to the COVID-19 outbreak,” until after the governor’s disaster declaration finally expires.

And the same goes for doctors, nurses, emergency medical service workers and even “health care volunteers.” They’re all immune to civil liability if they are providing services to any of the facilities dealing with the pandemic.

To be clear, this executive order covers not just the treatment of pandemic cases, but every service offered during the pandemic, as long as the institutions are involved in the response. If you have a botched heart surgery, they’d still be theoretically immune to lawsuits, as long as it didn’t involve “gross negligence or willful misconduct.”

The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, which represents plaintiffs lawyers and has pushed for strong civil suit protections, is one of the most powerful Statehouse lobbies, but it has been utterly silent on the governor’s new executive order and hasn’t responded to requests for comment.

So, how can the governor legally sweep away almost all civil liability for those providers? Well, it’s in state law.

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act gives the governor a ton of powers, and exempts health care workers and others from certain civil liability during a pending or actual disaster while under contract or direction from the government.

Pritzker’s executive order specifically directs medical facilities, personnel and volunteers to “render assistance in support of the State’s response to the disaster.” That gubernatorial order triggers the law’s provisions.

Everyone from the federal government on down say it’s about to get very real here (it already is in New York), and several hospitals will be overloaded.

A Pritzker administration official explained what’s about to happen. “You tell your hospital, ‘I know your standards of care are, say, 15 nurses on your ICU floor and now we’re telling you to only have 10 nurses because you have nurses calling in sick, and you have 20 more patients, but you’re just gonna have to tough it out and do that because you cannot turn anybody away who you can fit in a bed.’”

Understandably, you don’t want facilities and staff constantly worrying about being sued while treating people in those conditions. They have enough to worry about right now.

The hospitals also reportedly asked for the executive order partly to make sure that nursing homes and other residential facilities don’t freak out about legal liability when their residents begin to show symptoms and then hurriedly decide to immediately transfer them to already overburdened hospitals.

Flattening the curve, remember, is all about preventing the overloading of hospitals. Staying at home lessens your chance of catching or spreading the virus, and it also means keeping nursing home, CILA residents and others in place as long as possible.

Most hospitals weren’t doing well financially even before the pandemic. Closures were becoming the norm throughout the state as revenues dried up.

Elective procedures were essentially keeping most facilities afloat, but those are now banned by the most recent executive order. As Crain’s Chicago Business reported last week, even Cook County’s public health system relies on elective procedures to bring in revenues, but eliminating them per CDC guidelines cut the number of surgeries it performs in half.

It’s the same wherever you look, particularly in rural areas.

A massive health systems bailout will likely be required after this is all over, if not before. Until then, I’m told the Pritzker administration wanted to provide whatever help it could, and this executive order will do that.

As to whether that theoretical botched heart surgery mentioned above will fall under the civil liability exemption, I’ve heard differing opinions on whether it will or won’t. Judges and juries are certain to cut hospitals and caregivers some slack if they are working in an over-burdened facility. A heart surgeon, however, who is not doing any pandemic work wouldn’t have much of a defense for botching a surgery.

So maybe the trial lawyers won’t be completely shut out.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 11:14 am

Comments

Obamacare would have been much better received if it contained even a scintilla of tort reform.

This tracks the response at the Federal level because the alternative is too horrific to consider.

Professionals and hospitals refusing to care for gravely I’ll people because of the very real threat of being sued out of existence.

Comment by Lucky Pierre Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 11:39 am
Tort reform (read: screw the injured and hurt) wouldn’t be necessary if we had a first world country’s health care system without crazy medical expenses. Get rid of the crazy expenses, and suddenly it isn’t the doctor’s malpractice insurance covering nearly as much of the risk.

Comment by WorkingFromHome Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 12:27 pm
Medical professionals on the frontlines know the bureaucracy of medicine has gotten in the way of what matters most — doctors treating patients. The good news is that during COVID19 they are wisely letting telemedicine operate without the red tape, the feds have stopped hospital reporting requirements, physicians can work across states. Too bad it took a crisis to listen to doctors and get medicine to work more efficiently. Guessing it is only a matter of time before Illinois’ trial lawyers get the reigns back and we go back to our convoluted system that puts quality care last.

Comment by Ed Equity Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 12:45 pm
Can this be extended to LE/public safety? A little different, a little the same?

Comment by Rutro Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 12:48 pm
===listen to doctors and get medicine to work more efficiently===

I’m wondering which lobbying entity opposed allowing out of state doctors to practice in Illinois. Hmm.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 1:10 pm
Well I guess liability insurers are getting theirs too …

== Obamacare would have been much better received if it contained even a scintilla of tort reform. ===

Fact-free Mondays!

Comment by The Way I See It Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 2:02 pm
Perhaps this will make it less risky (from a liability perspective) for doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin - good news!

Comment by Unstable Genius Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 2:45 pm
Rich, real front line doctors are terrible at advocacy, lobbying, and organizing. They are extremely skilled technicians and the majority don’t feel groups like the AMA represent them. I’m not sure how to fix this, except maybe a new physicians’ union for membership outside of the public hospital systems….but they are too busy doing their jobs. Let’s hope an AD (after-disease) world learns the lessons similar to post 9/11 when Homeland Security streamlined intelligence. More efficiencies in medicine and advanced manufacturing for key priority supply chain items like PPE will be seen as how lives were saved and should not be rolled back.

Comment by Ed Equity Monday, Apr 6, 20 @ 2:50 pm