Notice

• A notification has to be made to a provider about a claim at least 60 days before filing suit against a health care provider. The person who is asserting a claim needs to send written notice to the health care provider by certified mail. A return receipt must be requested, and a claim needs to be sent to each physician or health care provider.
  
  

Expert Reports

• The claimant involved in a suit against a provider has up to 90 days to file an expert report, obtain a cost bond or put money in an escrow account. An expert report needs to contain the opinion of the expert that the standard of care from a provider was violated, which caused an injury to the patient. If an expert report cannot be obtained with the time frame allowed, an extension of 30 days may be granted by the court.
  
  

Comparative Negligence

• The Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act includes the adoption of the doctrine known as comparative negligence for tort claims. This means that when a claimant is more than 50 percent responsible for an injury, no damages can be recovered from a provider. If a claimant is less than 50 percent responsible for an injury, his damage recovery is reduced by the amount he is responsible for the injury.
  
  

Caps on Damages

• The amount of damages were capped at $500,000 for malpractice actions that led to the wrongful death of a patient. Adjusted for inflation, the amount has increased to almost $1.5 million in today's dollars. Since the law's inception the damage caps have been ruled unconstitutional except for wrongful death and survival action suits. The caps on damage awards applies to each defendant in a suit separately and are not combined.
  
  

Statute of Limitations

• The Act includes a 2-year statute of limitations for malpractice suits. The limitation begins 2 years from the date of an injury in a medical malpractice suit and 2 years from the date of death for a wrongful death suit. The statute of limitations for medical malpractice applies to claims for health care even if the injury was not detected in time to file suit. The statute of limitations can be extended up to 75 days if there is notice of intent shown to file a suit.