There is a limited amount of time within which a patient can make a medical malpractice claim against a medical professional. These statutes vary by state. The New York Senate is considering legislation to change the statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims. The New York bill would amend the statute of limitations to start the fifteen month clock from when a patient first realizes they were possibly misdiagnosed or harmed by a medical professional instead of fifteen months from the original incident.
The Medical Society of New York opposes A00285A.
This bill would amend the statute of limitations for medical, dental or podiatric malpractice to include a discovery of injury rule, allowing the current two and half year statute of limitations to run from the date an injured patient discovers, or should have discovered, that their injury was caused by malpractice. The bill would prohibit a malpractice action to be filed more than ten years after the date of the alleged malpractice. As this measure would potentially lead to enormous increases in the cost of liability insurance for physicians and hospitals at a time when no increases can be tolerated due to the enormous changes occurring in health care delivery, the Medical Society of the State of New York strongly opposes this measure and urges its defeat.
