Bill > S1130

This bill aims to protect sports medicine professionals by clarifying where their medical services are considered to be provided when they are working with athletes or teams in Massachusetts. Specifically, it removes an outdated provision that limited these protections to events sponsored by the United States Olympic Committee or World Cup Organizing Committee. The bill then adds a new section stating that if a sports medicine professional, defined as a physician or athletic trainer legally authorized to practice in another state and providing specific medical services under an agreement with a team or organization, offers covered medical services (general medical care, emergency care, or athletic training, excluding care at a health care facility or during transport to one) to an athlete, athletic team, or staff member in Massachusetts, those services will be treated as if they were provided in the state where the professional is licensed. This is important for determining their medical professional liability insurance and their civil and criminal malpractice liability. An athlete is defined as someone competing in a sporting event sponsored by a national governing body or for whom a higher education institution provides a sports medicine professional, and an athletic team is similarly defined, including paid participants or those competing in sanctioned events.