| The House Judiciary Committee on Monday adopted House Bill 4315, which requires medical care providers (physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, physician assistants, certified registered nurse practitioners, and persons licensed to diagnose or treat disorders and disabilities) to submit reports to the state Division of Motor Vehicles concerning patients whose mental or physical disabilities or disorders are deemed to compromise patients’ competencies to drive a motor vehicle as determined by DMV.
Following extensive debate, the Committee adopted an amendment by Delegate Shawn Fluharty of Ohio County that allows litigants’ attorneys to determine the degree to which health care providers determine an individual’s mental, medical, or physical competency with regard to operating a motor vehicle. That provision makes the health care provider review mandatory. Moreover, adoption of the section of the proposed law eliminated what Fluharty and other Delegates, including Brandon Steele of Raleigh County, saw as creating difficulty to determine whether health care providers complied with statutory requirements to evaluate driver competencies.
As explained by Delegate Steele, health care providers will receive training from medical malpractice insurers about how to comply with the law.
Delegate Fluharty, an attorney, said the result creates “bite” that he and other Delegates said the proposed statute lacked, although the Committee learned that drivers, evaluated by health care providers as having physical or mental or physical orders calling their driving abilities into question, can appeal decisions based on DMV actions, including appeals to circuit court — a point Committee counsel emphasized.
Delegate Steele, an attorney, said evaluations by health care providers could become evidence in matters arising from accidents involving persons screened by health care providers as having mental, medical or physical difficulties — “competencies” — that affect their abilities to operate motor vehicles.
While realizing the gravity of taking away a person’s ability to drive, presenters testified those steps could save lives.
The Committee, in wide-ranging discussions, learned some federal and state medical privacy laws may prohibit direct sharing of an individual’s medical evaluations with family or caregivers, although Delegates said those individuals have designated caregivers in many instances who could be privy to or designated to receive the information.
Other questions focused on medical treatments, including the use of prescribed medical marijuana or opioids.
Committee Counsel said medical treatments, including customizing vehicles to accommodate drivers with physical injuries, would be considered secondary to the physical condition, which health care providers would review.
The proposed statute uses this language: “The Division of Motor Vehicles shall consider disorders characterized by lapses of consciousness or other mental or physical disabilities affecting the ability of a person to drive safely for the purpose of the reports required by this … as provided by health care providers ….”
Delegate Steele discussed but did not offer an amendment that would have required each licensed driver to receive physical testing every 10 years. He said its purpose would be to address the state’s aging population and detect individuals who have physical or mental disabilities or disorders such as strokes.
Committee members, including Delegate Steele and others, praised Delegate Fluharty for his amendment, which the Committee adopted on a voice vote without dissent. |
