West Virginia Code of State Rules › Agency 115 - Risk And Insurance Management › Title 115 - LEGISLATIVE RULES STATE BOARD OF RISK AND INSURANCE MANAGEMENT › Series 115-07 - Patient Injury Compensation Fund › Section 115-7-3 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
3.1. For purposes
				of this rule, the following words or terms shall have the same meanings as set
				forth in W. Va. Code §
									55-7B-2:
				"collateral source", "emergency condition", "health care", "health care
				facility", "health care provider", "medical injury", "medical professional
				liability", "medical professional liability insurance", "non-economic loss",
				"patient", "plaintiff" and "representative".
3.2. "Act" means W. Va. Code §
									29-12D-1
et seq.
,W. Va. Code establishing the patient injury
				compensation fund.
3.3.
				"Actuarially sound" means funding sufficient to pay those claims for economic
				damages and all administrative or operational costs of the fund which are known
				or which are projected from analyses of claims, loss experience and other
				relevant factors.
3.4. "Agency"
				means the state board of risk and insurance management.
3.5. "Applicable Insurance" means all
				insurance available to provide indemnity coverage for all tortfeasors pursued
				in the underlying medical malpractice claim._
3.6. "Application for compensation" means the
				written request to the fund for payment of economic damages.
3.7. "Board" means the governing body of the
				state board of risk and insurance management as provided in W. Va. Code §
									29-12-3.
3.8. "Claimant" means the person submitting
				an application for compensation to the fund.
3.9. "Code" means the Code of West Virginia
				of 1931, as amended.
3.10.
				"Director" means the executive director of the state board of risk and
				insurance management.
3.11.
				"Economic damages" means those special damages which are reduced to an actual
				dollar amount that can be presented to a jury in an action brought under the
				medical professional liability act to compensate a plaintiff for the monetary
				costs of a medical injury, such as lost earnings, past and future medical care
				and rehabilitation services. Economic damages do not include non-economic
				damages, such as pain and suffering, or hedonic damages, court costs,
				post-judgment interest, attorneys' fees, extra-contractual damages, or punitive
				damages.
3.12. "Fund" means the
				West Virginia Patient Injury Compensation Fund created by W. Va. Code §
									29-12D-1(a).
3.13. "Medical professional liability act"
				means the provisions of Article 7B, Chapter 55 of the Code.
3.14. "Occurrence" means any act, series of
				acts, failure to act, or series of failures to act arising out of the rendering
				or failure to render medical professional services to any person within West
				Virginia by a health care provider resulting in a medical injury or
				injuries.
3.15. "Qualified
				claimant" means a claimant that is both a "patient" and a "plaintiff" as those
				terms are defined in the medical professional liability insurance
				act.
3.16. "Statutory limitations
				on the recovery of economic damages" means the limitations on recovery of
				economic damages in a medical malpractice action due to negligent treatment of
				emergency conditions at a designated trauma care center pursuant to W. Va. Code
				§
									55-7B-9c
				or by operation of the joint and several liability principles and standards set
				out in W. Va. Code §
									55-7B-9.
3.17. "Uncollectible economic damages" means
				any portion of an economic damages award or settlement in a medical malpractice
				action that a qualified claimant is unable to collect from the defendant due to
				statutory limitations on recovery of economic damages.
3.18. "Year" or "fiscal year" means the
				twelve (12) consecutive month period beginning the first day of July and ending
				the last day of June.