Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray,
We, the undersigned organizations, would like to express our strong support for S.808, the Sports
Medicine Licensure Clarity Act, and we respectfully request that you move this important piece of
legislation through the committee process.
Under current law, many states do not provide legal protection for sports medicine professionals
when traveling to a secondary state, and medical liability insurance carriers are not required to
cover sports medicine professionals when they travel with their teams to states where they are not
licensed to practice. In these circumstances, the health care professional must choose between
treating injured athletes at great professional risk and handing over the care of an injured player to
another professional who is not familiar with the individual’s medical history.
The Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity Act would remedy this problem by clarifying medical
liability rules for sports medicine professionals to ensure they are properly covered by their
professional liability insurance while traveling with athletic teams in another state. This bill will
help ensure that injured athletes have timely access to health care professionals who best know
their medical histories and can provide seamless, expert, and efficient continuity of care throughout
the duration of their injury.
As you may know, the House companion to this bill passed on a suspension of the rules in early
January of this year, after initially passing last fall. The bill was modified several times throughout
the committee process, and the final language is the product of a long-term, bipartisan,
collaborative effort between members of Congress, committee staff, and legislative counsel, with
input from a wide variety of stakeholders including sports medicine professional trade
associations, the leading legal professional association, and the insurance trade association
representing medical professional liability insurance groups.
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