41-5-3. Definitions.
1,043 words·~5 min read·
/nm/chapter-41-torts/article-5-medical-malpractice-act/41-5-3·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
As used in the Medical Malpractice Act:
A. "advisory board" means the patient's compensation fund advisory board;
B. "control" means equity ownership in a business entity that:
(1)represents more than fifty percent of the total voting power of the business entity; or
(2)has a value of more than fifty percent of that business entity;
C. "fund" means the patient's compensation fund;
D. "health care provider" means a person, a corporation, an organization, a facility or an institution licensed or certified by this state to provide health care or professional services as a doctor of medicine, a hospital, an outpatient health care facility, a doctor of osteopathy, a chiropractor, a podiatric physician, a nurse anesthetist, a physician's assistant, a certified nurse practitioner, a clinical nurse specialist or certified nurse- midwife or a business entity that is organized, incorporated or formed pursuant to the laws of New Mexico that provides health care services primarily through natural persons identified in this subsection.
"Health care provider" does not mean a person or an entity protected pursuant to the Tort Claims Act [41-4-1 to 41-4-27 NMSA 1978] or the Federal Tort Claims Act;
E. "hospital" means a facility licensed as a hospital in this state that offers inpatient services, nursing or overnight care on a twenty-four-hour basis for diagnosing, treating and providing medical, psychological or surgical care for three or more separate persons who have a physical or mental illness, disease, injury or rehabilitative condition or are pregnant and may offer emergency services. "Hospital" includes a hospital's parent corporation, subsidiary corporations or affiliates if incorporated or registered in New Mexico; employees and locum tenens providing services at the hospital; and agency nurses providing services at the hospital.
"Hospital" does not mean a person or an entity protected pursuant to the Tort Claims Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act;
F. "hospital system" means a group of two or more hospitals that are owned, operated or controlled by the same person or persons;
G. "independent outpatient health care facility" means a health care facility that is an ambulatory surgical center, an urgent care facility or a free-standing emergency room that is not, directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controlled or under common control with a hospital. "Independent outpatient health care facility" includes a facility's employees, locum tenens providers and agency nurses providing services at the facility. "Independent outpatient health care facility" does not mean a person or an entity protected pursuant to the Tort Claims Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act;
H. "independent provider" means a doctor of medicine, doctor of osteopathy, chiropractor, podiatric physician, nurse anesthetist, physician's assistant, certified nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist or certified nurse-midwife who is not an employee of a hospital or an outpatient health care facility. "Independent provider" does not mean a person or an entity protected pursuant to the Tort Claims Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act. "Independent provider" includes:
(1)a health care facility that is:
(a)licensed pursuant to the Health Care Code [Chapter 24A NMSA 1978] as an outpatient facility;
(b)not an ambulatory surgical center, an urgent care facility or a free-standing emergency room; and
(c)not hospital-controlled; and
(2)a business entity that is not a hospital or an outpatient health care facility that employs or consists of members who are licensed or certified as doctors of medicine, doctors of osteopathy, chiropractors, podiatric physicians, nurse anesthetists, physician's assistants, certified nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists or certified nurse-midwives and the business entity's employees;
I. "insurer" means an insurance company engaged in writing health care provider malpractice liability insurance in this state;
J. "malpractice claim" includes any cause of action arising in this state against a health care provider for medical treatment, lack of medical treatment or other claimed departure from accepted standards of health care that proximately results in injury to the patient, whether the patient's claim or cause of action sounds in tort or contract, and includes but is not limited to actions based on battery or wrongful death. "Malpractice claim" does not include a cause of action arising out of the driving, flying or nonmedical acts involved in the operation, use or maintenance of a vehicular or aircraft ambulance;
K. "medical care and related benefits" means all reasonable medical, surgical, physical rehabilitation and custodial services and includes drugs, prosthetic devices and other similar materials reasonably necessary in the provision of such services;
L. "occurrence" means a health care provider's or health care providers' acts or omissions in the course of medical treatment that created or combined to create an injury or injuries to a patient, regardless of the number of health care providers whose acts or omissions contributed to the injury or injuries; provided that "occurrence" shall not be construed to limit recovery to only one maximum statutory payment when independent medical acts or omissions cause separate injury or injuries to a patient in a course of medical treatment;
M. "outpatient health care facility" means an entity that is hospital-controlled and is licensed pursuant to the Health Care Code as an outpatient facility, including ambulatory surgical centers, free-standing emergency rooms, urgent care clinics, acute care centers and intermediate care facilities and includes a facility's employees, locum tenens providers and agency nurses providing services at the facility. "Outpatient health care facility" does not include:
(1)independent providers;
(2)independent outpatient health care facilities; or
(3)individuals or entities protected pursuant to the Tort Claims Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act;
N. "patient" means a natural person who received or should have received health care from a health care provider, under a contract, express or implied;
O. "superintendent" means the superintendent of insurance; and
P. "value of accrued medical care and related benefits" means the actual amount paid or owed by a patient, or a third party on behalf of a patient, for medical care and related benefits. "Value of accrued medical care and related benefits" does not include any costs waived, written off or lowered by a health care provider.
History: 1953 Comp., § 58-33-3, enacted by Laws 1976, ch. 2, § 3; 1977, ch. 284, § 1; 2021, ch. 16, § 1; 2021 (2nd S.S.), ch. 5, § 1; 2023, ch. 207, § 1; 2026, ch. 44, § 1.