SECTION 1. Section 5 of chapter 112 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2010 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “years.”, in line 78, the following sentences:-

Provided, however, that payments made as part of a disclosure, apology and early offer program, shall not be construed to be reportable against a physician identified during the root cause analysis conducted as part of a disclosure, apology and early offer program, absent a determination of substandard or unreasonable care rendered on the part of said physician. For purposes of this section a disclosure, apology and early offer program shall be a program that seeks to expedite resolution of incidents of medical injury by disclosure to patients and families when unanticipated adverse outcomes of care occur; investigate and explain what happened; implement systems to avoid recurrence of incidents and improve patient safety; and where appropriate, apologize and offer financial compensation without the patient having to file a lawsuit. 

SECTION 2. Section 5C of said chapter 112, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “insured.”, in lines 9-10, the following subsection:-

(d)  Provided, however, that payments made as part of a disclosure, apology and early offer program, shall not be construed to be reportable against a physician identified during the root cause analysis conducted as part of a disclosure, apology and early offer program, absent a determination of substandard or unreasonable care rendered on the part of said physician. For purposes of this section a disclosure, apology and early offer program shall be a program that seeks to expedite resolution of incidents of medical injury by disclosure to patients and families when unanticipated adverse outcomes of care occur; investigate and explain what happened; implement systems to avoid recurrence of incidents and improve patient safety; and where appropriate, apologize and offer financial compensation without the patient having to file a lawsuit.