SF 2 (LSB 1059XS (2) 91)

SENATE FILE 2

BY  LOFGREN

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the statute of repose in medical malpractice claims.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 614.1, subsection 9, paragraph a, Code 2025, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  Except as provided in paragraph “b”, those founded on injuries to the person or wrongful death against any physician and surgeon, osteopathic physician and surgeon, dentist, podiatric physician, optometrist, pharmacist, chiropractor, physician assistant, or nurse, licensed under chapter 147, or a hospital licensed under chapter 135B, arising out of patient care, within two years after the date on which the claimant knew, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have known, or received notice in writing of the existence of, the injury or death for which damages are sought in the action, whichever of the dates occurs first, but. However, in no event shall any action be brought more than six years after the date on which occurred the act or omission or occurrence alleged in the action to have been the cause of the injury or death unless a any of the following are true:
   (1)  A foreign object unintentionally left in the body caused the injury or death.
   (2)  The licensee or the licensee’s staff concealed from the person the act, omission, or occurrence that was the cause of the injury or death.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill relates to the statute of repose for medical malpractice claims.
   Under current law, medical malpractice claims are subject to a two-year statute of limitations and six-year statute of repose. A statute of limitations bars the right to bring an accrued action after a specified time, whereas a statute of repose terminates any right of action after a specified time, regardless of whether or not an injury has yet occurred.
   Specifically, current Code section 614.1(9)(a) requires that medical malpractice claims be brought within two years after the date on which the claimant knew, should have known through the use of reasonable diligence, or received notice in writing of the existence of, the injury or death for which damages are sought in the action, whichever of the dates occurs first. Current Code section 614.1(9)(a) bars actions brought more than six years after the date of the act or omission alleged to have been the cause of the injury or death, but exempts from the statute of repose cases where a foreign object was unintentionally left in the body and caused the injury or death.
   The bill provides a second exception to the six-year statute of repose. Under the bill, if the cause of the injury or death was concealed from the person by the physician and surgeon, osteopathic physician and surgeon, dentist, podiatric physician, optometrist, pharmacist, chiropractor, physician assistant, nurse, or hospital, or their staff, the six-year statute of repose does not apply.