Posted by linda on March 26, 1998 at 00:41:26:
1. A definition of "Good Samaritan Law" would be a law that primarily grant immunity from civil damaes to health professionals who is good faith render emergency care at the scene of an emergency. The only legal problems those giving aid could encounter is if their intervention amounts to gross negligence or willful misconduct. A case would be if a physician who comes upon a scene of an accident and stops to aid the victims of the accident has acted as a Good Samaritan. If the physician later sends a bill for the emergency services, this is no longer a Good Samaritan action. There also was a man who passed out while his wife was in the process for delivery, the physician help the husband up and sat him on a bed and then continue on with the wife and minutes later the man fell off the bed and then wanted to sue the physician and the hospital.
2. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (also known as the
Kennedy-Kassebaum law). This act establishes a new civil sanction that may be relevant to the
professional courtesy issue. This provision levies a civil monetary penalty for extending
improper "remuneration" or inducements to Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries. Also in European countries usually have Good Samaritan laws that makes it a crime not to summon aid or help someone in an emergency.