New Mexico Governor Signs Medical Malpractice Reform Law: New Mexico Senate Bill 523, which was signed into law on April 7, 2023, amends the New Mexico Medical Malpractice Act to cap claims for independent healthcare facilities, such as urgent care, ambulatory surgical centers, and free-standing emergency rooms that are not hospital controlled. Additionally, the damages recoverable from an injury or death to a patient as a result of medical malpractice will be capped at $1 million, except for punitive damages. Beginning in calendar year 2024, it adjusts annually by the prior three-year average consumer price index.
The new law states: In calendar year 2024 and subsequent years, the aggregate dollar amount recoverable by all persons for or arising from an injury or death to a patient as a result of malpractice, except for punitive damages and past and future medical care and related benefits, shall not exceed the following amounts for claims brought against an independent outpatient health care facility:
(1) for an injury or death that occurred in calendar year 2024, one million dollars ($1,000,000) per occurrence; and
(2) for an injury or death that occurred in calendar year 2025 and thereafter, the amount provided in Paragraph (1) of this subsection, adjusted annually by the prior three-year average consumer price index for all urban consumers, per occurrence.
The new law defines “independent outpatient health care facility” as a health care facility that is an ambulatory surgical center, urgent care facility or free-standing emergency room that is not, directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controlled or under common control with a hospital.
“Independent outpatient health care facility” includes a facility’s employees, locum tenens providers and agency nurses providing services at the facility. “Independent outpatient health care facility” does not mean a person or entity protected pursuant to the Tort Claims Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act.
To be qualified under the provisions of the Medical Malpractice Act, an independent outpatient health care facility shall:
(1) establish its financial responsibility by filing proof with the superintendent that the health care provider is insured by a policy of malpractice liability insurance issued by an authorized insurer in the amount of at least five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) per occurrence or by having continuously on deposit the sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) in cash with the superintendent or other like deposit as the superintendent may allow by rule; provided that for independent outpatient health care facilities, in the absence of an additional deposit or policy as required by this subsection, the deposit or policy shall provide coverage for not more than three separate occurrences; and
(2) pay the surcharge assessed on independent outpatient health care facilities by the superintendent pursuant to Section 41-5-25 NMSA 1978.
An independent outpatient health care facility’s personal liability is limited to five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for monetary damages and medical care and related benefits as provided in Section 41-5-7 NMSA 1978. Any amount due from a judgment or settlement in excess of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) shall be paid from the fund.
If you or a loved one may have been injured as a result of medical malpractice in New Mexico or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a New Mexico medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a New Mexico medical malpractice case or a medical malpractice case in your state, if appropriate.
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