Choice of law agreement between TX physicians and NM patients
Some of OMIC’s insureds practice near the border of New Mexico and see patients from that state. The Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA) generally provides broader protections than the New Mexico Tort Claims Act (NMTCA) to physicians sued for medical professional liability. Many Texas health care providers were considering refusing to see New Mexico residents if they would not be protected by the TTCA in a lawsuit arising from their care of New Mexico patients. In order to protect its citizens’ access to care, the New Mexico legislature passed a law to enforce choice of law and forum selection provisions in agreements between New Mexico patients and out-of-state health care providers.
If you want claims and civil actions brought against you by New Mexico patients to be brought in Texas and governed by Texas law, you must have a written agreement with the patient that contains Texas choice of law and choice of forum provisions.
We have prepared two documents for you to use. Please click on the name of the document to download it:
- SAMPLE GOVERNING LAW AND FORUM AGREEMENT.
- Here is a sample letter explaining the agreement to patients: Texas New Mexico PATIENT LETTER.
If you are considering the use of such an agreement, you should seek your attorney’s advice on the exact form of the agreement, its language, and who should sign it, as well as the language in the cover letter.
Copyright and Disclaimer
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Disclaimer
This online information is published by OMIC, the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company, a risk retention group, for educational purposes only. It is intended solely to provide general information on a number of medical, legal, and insurance issues. It is not intended to constitute medical, legal, or other professional advice and should not be relied upon as a source for such advice. If such advice is desired or needed, a doctor, attorney, insurance or other professional should be consulted.
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OMIC gives no assurance or warranty, expressed or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, legality, or reliability of any information on its website. The information is provided “as is.” All warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, freedom from contamination by computer viruses, and non-infringement of proprietary rights, are disclaimed.
Privacy Statement
OMIC (“we” or “us”) is committed to keeping your personally identifiable information private. This privacy statement describes how OMIC uses information we collect about you through our website and how we use your email address to communicate with you. It also explains the choices you can make about how we use your information and email address.
OMIC is the sole owner of the information collected on its website. This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this website.
Information We Collect
Automatically Collected Information
As is true of most websites, each time you visit OMIC’s website, we gather such information as your domain name, your internet protocol (IP) address, and your browser type, and store it in log files. Our server software also records how often you access our web pages. In addition, in order to reproduce your information on the Application Downloads Request Information Form and thus save you the trouble of re-entering it upon a subsequent access of the page, we do link information that we store in a cookie to personally identifiable information that you submit. You can remove the cookie by following the directions provided in your Internet browser’s “help” file.
How We Use This Information
We use this information internally to show aggregate activity and determine potential trends in web site usage. OMIC shares this information only with service providers used to administer our website and to provide us usage information.
Voluntarily Submitted Information
In order to request information from OMIC or to access certain pages on our website, you must provide some personal information, including your contact information (e.g. your name, address, and email), Academy membership or other identifying information (e.g. your AAO ID), and insurance policy information (e.g. your policy number and expiration date).
How We Use This Information
We use this information to verify your identity and eligibility and to process or respond to your requests. We may also use this information to update OMIC’s records. All information submitted is used only for OMIC’s business purposes. OMIC shares this information only with service providers used to process or respond to your requests. For example, if you request information about a life or health insurance product, we will share your contact information with Marsh Affinity Group Services, which coordinates the Academy/OMIC life and health insurance program. We do not give your personally identifiable information provided to us online to third parties for commercial purposes or for any other reason not disclosed in this statement. We will never use or share this information in ways not described in this privacy statement without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such use.
How We Use Your Email Address If your email address was voluntarily submitted to OMIC, in addition to using it to respond to your online requests, we may also use that email address to send you alerts, updates and announcements about your insurance with OMIC, including, but not limited to, underwriting and risk management information. OMIC shares your email address only with service providers used to process or respond to your requests, as explained above. Otherwise, OMIC does not share your email address with any third parties.
How to Unsubscribe
If you do not wish to receive any alerts, updates or announcements from OMIC via email, you may unsubscribe by doing one of the following:
- follow the instructions for unsubscribing on any alert, update or announcement email from OMIC, or;
- contacting OMIC as indicated below.
How to Change the Information You Have Given Us
If your personally identifiable information changes, you may edit this information either through the OMIC website or by contacting OMIC as indicated below.
How We Protect the Information You Give Us
We use generally accepted industry standards to protect the personally identifiable information we obtain about you through our website. Using a popular and reputable methodology, we are able to securely and reliably encrypt all information you provide to us. This makes it exceedingly difficult for unauthorized intruders to read any transmitted data. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to protect your personally identifiable information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Links to and from Other Web Sites
The privacy practices described in this statement are OMIC’s only; we are not responsible for the privacy practices of any companies whose websites are linked to or from the OMIC website. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read the privacy statements of all other websites.
Legal Disclaimer
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process.
Changes to the Privacy Statement
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make changes to our privacy policies or practices, we will amend the privacy statement to reflect those changes and post the revised version on our website.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions about this privacy statement or any of OMIC’s privacy practices or policies, please email omic@omic.com, call (800) 562-6642, fax (415) 771-1095, or write to us:
OMIC
655 Beach Street San Francisco, CA 94109.
OMIC, not the Academy, is solely responsible for all insurance and business decisions including coverage, underwriting, claims and defense decisions.
