03/18/10

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ The House Health and Welfare Committee voted
8-6 to kill a measure hospitals had sought to shield them from
lawsuits.

The measure, aimed at protecting hospitals that use peer review
to credential doctors, had passed the Senate 21-13.

The bill arose from an Idaho Supreme Court decision last July
against St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.

A patient treated there in 2003 alleged the hospital negligently
credentialed one of the doctors who had treated him.

St. Alphonsus insisted it was immune; the high court disagreed.

Its lobbyist, Jeremy Pisca, told the House panel during three
hours of testimony Thursday that peer review would be ``blown
apart'' if the bill didn't become law.

But Rep. Branden Durst, a Boise Democrat, called the bill
``playing with fire,'' dubbing it an invitation to companies that
lost in court to pursue grievances in the Legislature.


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