Santa Fe, NM(KKOB)- It took several hours Tuesday night, but the state Senate overwhelmingly approved the Medical Malpractice Reform Bill or HB 99 by a 40-2 vote around 10 p.m. and now the bill which was originally approved by the House over the weekend goes to Governor Lujan Grisham’s desk who says she will sign it.
The bill arrived to the full Senate with three amendments from a Senate committee but the full Senate voted to remove all three amendments and voted with only 2 Senators opposed. The two opposed were Senator Linda Lopez Democrat of Albuquerque and Shannon Pinto a Democrat from Tohatchi.
Republicans and Democrats celebrated the bill’s passage. The bill creates a tiered system that caps punitive damages at about $1 million for independent physicians and clinics, $6 million for locally owned hospitals and $15 million for larger corporate-owned hospitals.
