STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                          4667
 
                               2003-2004 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                    February 19, 2003
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced by M. of A. STRINGER, KAUFMAN, LEVY, SEDDIO, ORTIZ, JACOBS --
          Multi-Sponsored  by  --  M. of A. CLARK, GALEF, GLICK, GORDON, HIKIND,
          LAVELLE, MAYERSOHN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes
 
        AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to  delay-
          ing the date when an action for medical, dental, or podiatric malprac-
          tice  must  be  commenced  until  the defendant has filed all required
          incident reports
 
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
 
     1    Section  1.  Section  214-a  of  the  civil practice law and rules, as
     2  amended by chapter 485 of the laws  of  1986,  is  amended  to  read  as
     3  follows:
     4    §  214-a.  Action  for  medical, dental or podiatric malpractice to be
     5  commenced within two years and six months; exceptions.   (1)  An  action
     6  for  medical,  dental  or podiatric malpractice must be commenced within
     7  two years and six months of the act, omission or failure  complained  of
     8  or  last  treatment  where  there  is  continuous treatment for the same
     9  illness, injury or condition which gave rise to the said  act,  omission
    10  or  failure;  provided, however, that where the action is based upon the
    11  discovery of a foreign object in the body of the patient, the action may
    12  be commenced within one year of the date of such  discovery  or  of  the
    13  date  of  discovery of facts which would reasonably lead to such discov-
    14  ery, whichever is earlier. For the purpose  of  this  section  the  term
    15  "continuous  treatment" shall not include examinations undertaken at the
    16  request of the patient for the sole purpose of ascertaining the state of
    17  the patient's condition. For  the  purpose  of  this  section  the  term
    18  "foreign  object" shall not include a chemical compound, fixation device
    19  or prosthetic aid or device.
    20    (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one of this section,
    21  an action for medical, dental, or  podiatric  malpractice  need  not  be
    22  commenced  within  two years and six months if a defendant has failed to
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD08260-01-3

        A. 4667                             2
 
     1  file an incident report as required by law in connection with  an  inci-
     2  dent  that is the subject of the malpractice action. In such a case, the
     3  action may be commenced within one year of the date on which  the  inci-
     4  dent report is filed.
     5    §  2.  This  act  shall take effect immediately and shall apply to any
     6  action in connection with which an incident report has not  been  filed,
     7  regardless  of  whether  or  not  the period of limitation has otherwise
     8  expired.