House Adopts Bill Broadening Health Care Providers' Immunity To Lawsuits Amid COVID-19

By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

March 9, 2022

TOPEKA — Republican and Democratic representatives rebelled Wednesday against an amendment crafted by hospital association lobbyists to broaden immunity of health care providers from lawsuits based on care of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The House nevertheless approved a bill extending until January 2023 fundamentals of a state law due to expire at the end of March that authorized insurance coverage for telemedicine during the pandemic and offered a shield from civil liability to hospitals and businesses in substantial compliance with public health directives. The amended version of Senate Bill 286 was approved by the House on a vote of 101-17 and forwarded to the Senate.

The controversial amendment presented by Rep. Blaine Finch, an Ottawa Republican and the House’s No. 2 official, broadened protection of hospitals in terms of lawsuits and administrative fines or penalties related to patients hospitalized during the COVID-19 crisis. The adjustment would extend the protections beyond coronavirus patients to others receiving care.

“Hospitals were inundated with COVID patients,” Finch said. “Tough decisions had to be made.”

Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, complained House GOP leadership decided to take the Kansas Hospital Association’s proposal directly to the full House rather than submit it for consideration by the House Judiciary Committee.

He said the Finch amendment would undermine legitimate consumer complaints about their medical care. There is no evidence a bunch of plaintiffs were awaiting expiration of the current law to send their lawyers to a district court to file suit, he said.

“This is blatant disrespect for the committee process,” Carmichael said. “It’s a broad grant of authority for health care providers to injure people. It’s not based upon the accepted standards in American jurisprudence. It’s based on a request by a special-interest group to be treated differently than other professions.”

He theorized few House members understood legal implications of the amendment, but said it would pass because it was blessed by GOP House leadership.

“I doubt I’m going to convince a majority of this chamber to stand up to autocratic and totalitarian leadership, who thinks the rules don’t apply to them,” Carmichael said.

Rep. Tatum Lee, R-Ness City, said she was concerned exempting hospitals and nursing homes from civil liability was harmful to people denied lifesaving medical care. She said the family of a COVID-19 patient hospitalized in Ness City requested ivermectin and other off-label drugs, but was denied. The man was transferred to Garden City to gain access to alternative treatment and survived the coronavirus, she said.

Instead of holding hospitals responsible, she said, the amendment would make hospitals less accountability.

“When those patients die because of denied treatment of COVID, the families will now have no recourse. We’ve seen the damage that giving immunity to vaccine companies has done. This is an example of getting the best legislation that money can buy,” the Republican said.

Lee said she’d been told by politically oriented people at the Capitol that her frustrations with state government were tied to her inability to appreciate the legislative process.

“What they really mean to say is that, ‘You don’t understand that the lobbyists run things,'” she said. “I’m tired of this chamber dancing for the lobbyists. It’s time we do our job and stand up for the people.”

Finch, who serves as the House speaker pro tem, said it was ironic “autocratic leadership” engaged in a lengthy debate about a Democratic representative’s amendment, never considered in committee, to a bill investing state resources into the Kansas Employee Retirement System. That amendment was defeated.

In terms of the amendment sought by hospital lobbyists, Finch said, the bill would better protect medical professionals and businesses from frivolous lawsuits or challenges related to treatment of patients.

“It’s not about their lobbyists,” Finch said. “It’s about the men and women who work there and the service they do in our community.”

This story was originally published by Kansas Reflector For more stories from the Kansas Reflector visit Kansas Reflector.