NM MEDICAL REVIEW COMMISSION REPORT

SB0247

SENATE BILL 247

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2026

INTRODUCED BY

Pat Woods

AN ACT

RELATING TO MEDICAL MALPRACTICE; ALLOWING A REPORT OF A PANEL
OF THE NEW MEXICO MEDICAL REVIEW COMMISSION TO BE ADMITTED AS
EVIDENCE FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEFENDING AGAINST A PLAINTIFF'S
ACTION TO RECOVER PUNITIVE DAMAGES WHEN THE PANEL DETERMINES
THERE IS INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1.
Section 41-5-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1976,
Chapter 2, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

"41-5-3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Medical Malpractice
Act:

A. "advisory board" means the patient's
compensation fund advisory board;

B. "control" means equity ownership in a business
entity that:

(1) represents more than fifty percent of the
total voting power of the business entity; or

(2) has a value of more than fifty percent of
that business entity;

C. "fund" means the patient's compensation fund;

D. "health care provider" means a person,
a

corporation,
an
organization,
a
facility or
an
institution
licensed or certified by this state to provide health care or
professional services as a doctor of medicine,
a
hospital,
an

outpatient health care facility,
a
doctor of osteopathy,
a

chiropractor, [
podiatrist
]
a podiatric physician, a
nurse
anesthetist,
a
physician's assistant,
a
certified nurse
practitioner,
a
clinical nurse specialist or certified nurse-midwife or a business entity that is organized, incorporated or
formed pursuant to the laws of New Mexico that provides health
care services primarily through natural persons identified in
this subsection. "Health care provider" does not mean a person
or
an
entity protected pursuant to the Tort Claims Act or the
Federal Tort Claims Act;

E. "hospital" means a facility licensed as a
hospital in this state that offers [
in-patient
]
inpatient

services, nursing or overnight care on a twenty-four-hour basis
for diagnosing, treating and providing medical, psychological
or surgical care for three or more separate persons who have a
physical or mental illness, disease, injury or rehabilitative
condition or are pregnant and may offer emergency services.
"Hospital" includes a hospital's parent corporation, subsidiary
corporations or affiliates if incorporated or registered in New
Mexico; employees and locum tenens providing services at the
hospital; and agency nurses providing services at the hospital.
"Hospital" does not mean a person or
an
entity protected
pursuant to the Tort Claims Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act;

F. "independent outpatient health care facility"
means a health care facility that is an ambulatory surgical
center,
an
urgent care facility or
a
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
an

entity protected pursuant to the Tort Claims Act or the Federal
Tort Claims Act;

G. "independent provider" means a doctor of
medicine, doctor of osteopathy, chiropractor, [
podiatrist
]

podiatric physician
, nurse anesthetist, physician's assistant,
certified nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist or
certified nurse-midwife who is not an employee of a hospital or

an
outpatient health care facility. "Independent provider"
does not mean a person or
an
entity protected pursuant to the
Tort Claims Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act. "Independent
provider" includes:

(1) a health care facility that is:

(a) licensed pursuant to the [
Public
Health Act
]
Health Care Code
as an outpatient facility;

(b) not an ambulatory surgical center,

an
urgent care facility or
a
free-standing emergency room; and

(c) not hospital-controlled; and

(2) a business entity that is not a hospital
or
an
outpatient health care facility that employs or consists
of members who are licensed or certified as doctors of
medicine, doctors of osteopathy, chiropractors, [
podiatrists
]

podiatric physicians
, nurse anesthetists, physician's
assistants, certified nurse practitioners, clinical nurse
specialists or certified nurse-midwives and the business
entity's employees;

H. "insurer" means an insurance company engaged in
writing health care provider malpractice liability insurance in
this state;

I. "malpractice claim" includes any cause of action
arising in this state against a health care provider for
medical treatment, lack of medical treatment or other claimed
departure from accepted standards of health care that
proximately results in injury to the patient, whether the
patient's claim or cause of action sounds in tort or contract,
and includes but is not limited to actions based on battery or
wrongful death; "malpractice claim" does not include a cause of
action arising out of the driving, flying or nonmedical acts
involved in the operation, use or maintenance of a vehicular or
aircraft ambulance;

J. "medical care and related benefits" means all
reasonable medical, surgical, physical rehabilitation and
custodial services and includes drugs, prosthetic devices and
other similar materials reasonably necessary in the provision
of such services;

K. "occurrence" means all injuries to a patient
caused by health care providers' successive acts or omissions
that combined concurrently to create a malpractice claim;

L. "outpatient health care facility" means an
entity that is hospital-controlled and is licensed pursuant to
the [
Public Health Act
]
Health Care Code
as an outpatient
facility, including ambulatory surgical centers, free-standing
emergency rooms, urgent care clinics, acute care centers and
intermediate care facilities and includes a facility's
employees, locum tenens providers and agency nurses providing
services at the facility. "Outpatient health care facility"
does not include:

(1) independent providers;

(2) independent outpatient health care
facilities; or

(3) individuals or entities protected pursuant
to the Tort Claims Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act;

M. "panel" means a medical review panel convened by
the New Mexico medical review commission;

[
M.
]
N.
"patient" means a natural person who
received or should have received health care from a health care
provider, under a contract, express or implied; and

[
N.
]
O.
"superintendent" means the superintendent
of insurance."

SECTION 2.
Section 41-5-20 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1976,
Chapter 2, Section 20) is amended to read:

"41-5-20. PANEL DELIBERATIONS AND DECISION.--

A. The deliberations of [
the
]
a
panel shall be and
remain confidential. Upon consideration of all the relevant
material, the panel shall decide only two questions:

(1) whether there is substantial evidence that
the acts complained of occurred and that they constitute
malpractice; and

(2) whether there is a reasonable medical
probability that the patient was injured [
thereby
]
by the acts
.

B. All votes of the panel on the two questions for
decision shall be by secret ballot. The decision shall be by a
majority vote of those voting members of the panel who have sat
on the entire case. The decision shall be communicated in
writing to the parties and attorneys concerned, and a copy
[
thereof
] shall be retained in the permanent files of the
New
Mexico medical review
commission.

C. The decision shall in every case be signed for
the panel by the [
chairman
]
chair
, who shall vote only in the
event the other members of the panel are evenly divided, and
shall contain only the conclusions reached by a majority of its
members and the number of members, if any, dissenting
[
therefrom
]; provided, however, that if the vote is not
unanimous, the majority may briefly explain the reasoning and
basis for their conclusion, and the dissenters may likewise
explain the reasons for disagreement.

D.
Except as provided in Subsection G of this
section
, the report of the [
medical review
] panel shall not be
admissible as evidence in any action subsequently brought in a
court of law. A copy of the report shall be sent to the health
care provider's professional licensing board.

E. Panelists and witnesses shall have absolute
immunity from civil liability for all communications, findings,
opinions and conclusions made in the course and scope of duties
prescribed by the Medical Malpractice Act.

F.
Except as provided in Subsection G of this
section
, the panel's decisions shall be without administrative
or judicial authority and shall not be binding on any party.
The panel shall make no effort to settle or compromise any
claim [
nor
]
or
express any opinion on the monetary value of any
claim.

G. If a majority of the members of the panel vote
to answer either of the questions provided in Subsection A of
this section in the negative, and the patient or the patient's
representative chooses to continue with the malpractice claim,
the report of the panel shall be admissible as evidence in a
court of law for the purpose of defending against a plaintiff's
action to recover punitive damages.
"

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