AGO 89-83.

Case DateAugust 21, 1989
CourtSouth Carolina
South Carolina Attorney General Opinions 1989. AGO 89-83. 218 August 21, 1989OPINION NO. 89-831) Assuming the agreement to provide voluntary non-compensated services is made prior to the rendering of the physical, the qualified immunity provided by Section 33-55-210 (b) would probably attach to a physician providing physical evaluations for high school athletes at a regional hospital voluntarily and without compensation for the rendering of the physical. 2) The charging of a fee for physicals for high school athletes by either the local Athletic Medicine Foundation or local medical society does not defeat the qualified immunity of the volunteer physician, provided he does not receive any compensation for the provision of the medical services and provided the formal agreement is properly executed; paid medical support personnel are not entitled to the qualified immunity provided by Section 33-55-210(b); but, however they may be entitled to other statutory immunities. 3) Section 33-55-210 (b) does not expressly require that the agreement to provide voluntary non-compensated services must be in writing or that the agreement would have to contain all of the suggested provisions.TO: Member, South Carolina SenateFROM: Edwin E. Evans
Chief Deputy Attorney General
You have asked the opinion of this Office upon the application of Section 33-55-210, South Carolina Code of Laws, 1976 (1988 Cum. Supp.), to physicians providing medical services in certain factual situations. This Office has previously concluded that Section 33-55-210 (as last amended by Act 674 of 1988) provides a qualified immunity "when a physician 'renders medical services voluntarily and without compensation, expectation or promise thereof . . . [and] [t]he agreement to provide voluntary non-compensated services [is] made before the rendering of the service by the [physician].'" Each of the scenarios presented by you involve the provision of physical evaluations for high school athletes.
1. Athletes are done in a screening physical fashion by multiple physicians at a regional hospital. No fee is charged. The physicians donate their time.
Assuming the physician did not receive any compensation nor had any promise or expectation of compensation for the rendering of the physical, and assuming that the physician entered into an agreement to provide this voluntary...

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