Court Opinion

ID: 9695538
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:22:02.766522+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:14.022249
License: Public Domain

VERNIERO, J.,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion. I interpret its holding as imposing a duty on the physician to examine the individual competently, within the parameters of the third-party referral, and to disclose to that examinee any potentially serious condition revealed by the examination. Although the Court cites approvingly to that portion of Ranier v. Frieman, 294 N.J.Super. 182, 190, 682 A.2d 1220 (App.Div.1996), in which the Appellate Division articulated that the examining physician’s duty is “to make a professionally reasonable and competent diagnosis,” ante 166 N.J. at 105, 764 A.2d at 442, it does so strictly in the context of an examination requested by a third-party entity. I do not interpret the Court’s holding as imposing a duty on the examining physician to discover or diagnose potential ailments beyond the scope of the third-party referral.
The Court’s approach resembles the approach reflected in N.J.A.C. 13:35-6.5. That regulation provides that a licensee in Dr. Bojarski’s position must disclose to examinees any “abnormalities or conditions” revealed by the examination and not known to them. N.J.A.C. 13:35 — 6.5(f). In my view, that provision establishes a non-delegable duty on the part of physicians to disclose such information to persons, like Mr. Reed, who are examined at the request of employers or other third-party entities. Persons examined by physicians in those circumstances have a right to be informed of any negative results.
*111Moreover, N.J.A.C. 13:35-6.5(f) is careful to denote persons who are examined in the employment-screening context as “examinees” as opposed to “patients.” The regulation defines an examinee as a “person who is the subject of professional examination where the purpose of that examination is unrelated to treatment and where a report of the examination is to be supplied to a third party.” N.J.A.C. 13:35-6.5(a). A patient, on the other hand, is defined as “any person who is the recipient of a professional service ... for purposes of treatment or a consultation relating to treatment.” Ibid. The regulation thus contemplates a circumscribed relationship between the examining physician and examinee in the employment-screening context.
For reversal arid, remandment — Chief Justice PORITZ and Justices STEIN, COLEMAN, LONG, VERNIERO, LaVECCHIA and ZAZZALI — 7.
Opposed — None.