H.B. 2                                                     VETOES

(ii) one representative of the Medical Mutual Liability Insurance
Society of Maryland;

(iii)   one representative of the Maryland Hospital Association;

(iv)   one representative of the Maryland State Bar Association;

(v)     one representative of the Maryland Defense Council;

(vi)    one representative of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association;

and

(vii) one representative of the health insurance industry.

(e) The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House shall designate
the co-chairs of the Task Force.

(d) The State Workers' Compensation Commission, the University of
Maryland Medical System, and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of
Public Health jointly shall provide staff support to the Task Force.

(e) A member of the Task Force:

(1) may not receive compensation; but

(2) is entitled to reimbursement for expenses under the Standard State
Travel Regulations, as provided in the State budget.

(f) The Task Force shall:

(1) study the feasibility of developing a statewide no fault system, based
on a workers' compensation model, that would compensate medically injured patients
administratively instead of through the courts by creating a quasi-governmental
entity that would be the sole remedy for injured patients;

(2) gather and analyze data on the cost of compensating medical injuries
through the existing tort system and compare the cost of a no-fault system with that
of the existing tort system;

(3) investigate the financial, policy, and legal issues critical to the design
of a no-fault system;

(4) study other medical no fault systems such as in Sweden, New
Zealand, and the states of Virginia and Florida, and other medical no fault pilot
programs as proposed in Utah, Colorado, and Massachusetts; and

(5) study the feasibility of developing a pilot program, based on a
workers' compensation model, that:

(i) would be conducted in a selected community based hospital and
a hospital affiliated with an academic institution, with a second community based
hospital and second hospital affiliated with an academic institution serving as the
control group;

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