Opinion ID: 1946872
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Can a Maryland court accept the filing of a declaration against an HMO prior to or during mandatory arbitration?

Text: A Maryland court should not accept a declaration seeking to impose respondeat superior liability upon an HMO, based on the medical malpractice of its employee health care provider, prior to or during mandatory arbitration. To permit a claimant to file such a suit would contravene § 3-2A-02 (a). That section provides in part: An action or suit [by a person against a health care provider for medical injury suffered by the person] may not be brought or pursued in any court of this State except in accordance with this subtitle.  (Emphasis added.) Section 3-2A-06 delineates the procedure for obtaining judicial review of an arbitration decision after an award has been entered. The section allows dissatisfied parties to reject the award for any reason, but it conditions nullification of the award on the filing of a court action within 30 days of service of the award on the rejecting party. § 3-2A-06 (a) & (b) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article. As this Court has previously stated, the Act requires that malpractice disputes be submitted to nonbinding arbitration as a condition precedent to the institution of a court action. Attorney General v. Johnson, 282 Md. 274, 283-284, 385 A.2d 57 (1978) (emphasis added). Moreover, it is unnecessary to permit a claimant to file a declaration in court prior to an arbitration decision. First, the filing and subsequent acceptance of a declaration necessitates some expenditure of both judicial and litigant resources, which might be conserved if the arbitration decision is acceptable. These are precisely the type of expenditures that the Legislature sought to avoid by enacting the Health Care Malpractice Claims Act. Second, filing a declaration will not accomplish anything not accomplished by filing a claim with the Health Claims Arbitration Office. Section 5-109 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article provides: § 5-109. Actions against physicians. An action for damages for an injury arising out of the rendering of or failure to render professional services by a health care provider, as defined in § 3-2A-01 of this article shall be filed (1) within five years of the time the injury was committed or (2) within three years of the date when the injury was discovered, whichever is the shorter. If the claimant was under 16 years of age at the time the injury was committed, the time shall commence when he reaches the age of 16. Filing of a claim with the Health Claims Arbitration Office in accordance with § 3-2A-04 of this article shall be deemed the filing of an action for purposes of this section. Thus, filing a claim in court is not a prerequisite for tolling the statute of limitations.