Opinion ID: 1793567
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Purpose Underlying the Statute

Text: In the face of statutory language that lacks clarity and a less than illuminating legislative history, we turn for guidance to the purposes underlying the enactment of review organizations statutes in order to determine how the provider data exception fits within those purposes. Nationwide, review organizations statutes have been enacted for the purpose of improving the quality of health care through the use of the medical peer review system. See Jenkins v. Wu, 102 Ill.2d 468, 82 Ill.Dec. 382, 468 N.E.2d 1162, 1168 (1984) (stating that the purpose of Illinois' review organizations statute is to ensure the effectiveness of professional self-evaluation, by members of the medical profession, in the interest of improving the quality of health care and noting that the majority of State legislatures have passed legislation in the area of hospital-committee confidentiality). See also State ex rel. Chandra v. Sprinkle, 678 S.W.2d 804, 806-07 (Mo. 1984) (en banc); Franco v. District Ct. In and For the City and County of Denver, 641 P.2d 922, 928-29 (Colo. 1982) (en banc). The purpose underlying Minnesota's review organizations statute is identical to that of other review organizations statutes. Two opinions of our court support this conclusion: Campbell v. St. Mary's Hospital, 312 Minn. 379, 252 N.W.2d 581 (1977); Kalish v. Mount Sinai Hospital, 270 N.W.2d 783 (Minn.1978). Both Campbell and Kalish were written before 1991, when the provider data exception was made a part of the statutory scheme. We first addressed the purpose underlying the review organizations statute in Campbell. There, we held that the district court properly awarded summary judgment to persons involved with the hospital's medical peer review process in the face of a physician's claims of interference with business relationships, defamation, and conspiracy. Campbell, 312 Minn. at 380-81, 252 N.W.2d at 583. We stated as to the grant of immunity that: The clear import of [the review organizations statute] is to encourage the medical profession to police its own activities with a minimum of judicial interference    courts are ill-equipped to pass judgment on the specialized expertise required of a physician, particularly when such a decision is likely to have a direct impact on human life. Id. at 389, 252 N.W.2d at 587. The following year, in Kalish, 270 N.W.2d at 783, a medical malpractice case, we stated that the policy and purpose behind Minn.Stat. §§ 145.61-.67 as they relate to health care organizations is that: These statutes, and similar statutes in many other states, are designed to serve the strong public interest in improving the quality of health care. The statutes reflect a legislative judgment that improvements in the quality of health care will be fostered by granting certain statutory protections to health care review organizations. Id. at 785 (footnotes omitted). Thus, it is clear, both nationally and in Minnesota, that the purpose underlying review organizations statutes is the strong public interest in improving health care by granting certain statutory protections to medical review organizations.