STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 234 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 4, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. MAGNARELLI -- read once and referred to the Committee on Judiciary AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the disclosure of medical records in third party medical malpractice actions The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The civil practice law and rules is amended by adding a new 2 section 4550 to read as follows: 3 § 4550. Disclosure of medical records in third party medical malprac- 4 tice action. 1. In medical malpractice actions where the plaintiff is 5 not the patient of the defendant and the alleged malpractice is the 6 result of the defendant's treatment or care of a non-party, the defend- 7 ant may make a motion to the court to compel the non-party patient, 8 notwithstanding any state or federal privacy laws to the contrary, to 9 waive the privilege in order to obtain disclosure of medical records 10 relevant to the litigation or permit the defendant to testify about his 11 or her interactions with the non-party patient. The court shall grant a 12 waiver of the privilege if: 13 (a) The defendant can show that the non-party patient has failed to 14 waive the privilege after a good faith effort by the defendant was made 15 to obtain the waiver; and 16 (b) The record or testimony demonstrates that the requested informa- 17 tion and/or records may provide a defense to the action. 18 2. In the interest of confidentiality, the judge may order that the 19 hearing be held in camera. The judge may also limit the scope of any 20 disclosure order to only medical information that is relevant to the 21 pending action. 22 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 23 have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD00317-01-3