Subject: “Good Samaritan Health Professionals Act of 2017”
Dear Chairman Burgess and Ranking Member Green:
Representing a diverse coalition of providers and associations working to reduce medical lawsuit abuse
and improve timely access to quality care, the Health Coalition on Liability and Access commends your
decision to markup the Good Samaritan Health Professionals Act of 2017 (H.R. 1876).
Over the past year, large-scale disasters have included the wildfires of California and the hurricanes and
subsequent flooding of Texas, the Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico. These events highlight the need to ensure
that medical professionals who seek to lend their expertise and assistance to victims of these natural
disasters are not turned away or limited in the scope of their assistance because of the threat of medical
liability lawsuits.
Inconsistencies in current federal and state laws could subject medical professionals and licensed health
care providers to unjust medical liability lawsuits when they volunteer their services to disaster victims.
The Good Samaritan Health Professionals Act of 2017 would help protect medical volunteers from such
lawsuits during a federally-declared disaster, and ensure that vital health care services often provided by
medical volunteers remain available – all while respecting existing medical liability laws in individual
states.
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