SF5043

Purpose

• To change how long a person has to sue a health care provider for malpractice, by adding a specific exemption for gender-affirming care provided to a minor. The bill would make these gender-affirming care actions not subject to the standard four-year statute of limitations that typically applies to medical malpractice claims.

Main Provisions

• Health care provider definition: The bill defines who counts as a health care provider for purposes of this law. This includes physicians, surgeons, dentists, occupational therapists, other health care professionals as defined in state law, and hospitals or treatment facilities.

• General statute of limitations (malpractice actions): Under current law, an action by a patient or former patient against a health care provider for malpractice, error, mistake, or failure to cure must be started within four years from when the cause of action accrued. This applies whether the claim is based in contract or tort. There is also a provision about counterclaims that can be raised even if time limits would have barred them, with restrictions on judgments.

• Exception for minor gender-affirming care: Notwithstanding the general rule above, a cause of action involving gender-affirming care for a minor child is not subject to the four-year statute of limitations described in the previous subdivision. In other words, these cases would not follow the same four-year time limit.

• Definition of gender-affirming care: The bill defines gender-affirming care as any medical or surgical intervention, including but not limited to hormone therapy, puberty blockers, or gender reassignment surgery, that is intended to affirm an individual’s perceived gender identity when it differs from the individual’s biological sex as determined at birth.

• Note on timing: The standard four-year period begins from when the cause of action accrued, except for the specified exception for minor gender-affirming care.

Significant Changes to Existing Law

• Adds a categorical exception to the four-year limit for civil actions involving gender-affirming care provided to a minor, effectively removing or bypassing the general time limit for these specific cases.

• Expands the definition of gender-affirming care to include hormones, puberty blockers, and gender reassignment procedures, framed as treatments to affirm a minor’s perceived gender identity.

• Maintains the existing framework for defining health care providers and for ordinary malpractice actions, including how accrual and certain counterclaims operate, but applies the four-year limit differently for the minor gender-affirming care exception.

Definitions (Key terms referenced in the bill)

• Health care provider: includes physicians, surgeons, dentists, occupational therapists, other health care professionals as defined in statute, hospitals, or treatment facilities.

• Gender-affirming care: medical or surgical interventions such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers, or gender reassignment surgery intended to align an individual’s appearance or function with their perceived gender identity when it differs from their biological sex at birth.

• Minor child: a person under the age of adulthood who would receive gender-affirming care under the bill.

• Perceived gender identity vs. biological sex: the bill distinguishes between how a person identifies or perceives their gender and the sex assigned at birth.

Impact on Practice and Access (plain takeaway)

• For providers: The bill could increase long-term exposure to malpractice claims related to gender-affirming care for minors by removing the standard four-year time limit for these cases.

• For patients and families: Individuals who received gender-affirming care as minors may have a longer or unlimited window to bring a medical malpractice claim, depending on how the final law is interpreted and applied.

Relevant Terms - statute of limitations - four years - accrual - health care provider - malpractice - error - mistake - failure to cure - contract or tort - counterclaim - genderaffirming care - minor child - hormone therapy - puberty blockers - gender reassignment surgery - perceived gender identity - biological sex - birth - Minnesota Statutes 2024 section 541.076 - subdivision - exception