Senate Judiciary Committee hears bill to expand medical hearsay exception to 'health care providers'

Senate Bill 127, which would expand an existing Kansas hearsay exception by replacing the word “physician” with “health care provider,” drew a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Aaron Breitenbach, deputy district attorney in Sedgwick County, testified for the Kansas County and District Attorneys Association in support of the change and said the amendment updates the statute to reflect that many patients now give information to nurses and other non‑physician clinicians rather than to a physician.

The bill would amend the statute identified in committee as “KSA 64 60,” the committee’s reviser said, by changing the phrase that currently makes admissible certain out‑of‑court statements made “to a physician consulted for treatment or for diagnosis with a view to treatment” to statements made to the broader class defined by KSA 65 49 15. The reviser noted the only drafting change is on page 3, lines 19–21.

Committee members pressed proponents on the scope and potential consequences of the change. Senator Titus asked whether the referenced definition is broad enough to include dentists and corporate medical providers and whether that breadth risks admitting statements that would otherwise be excluded for confrontation and cross‑examination reasons. Breitenbach responded that the exception is rooted in the policy that statements made to care providers in a treatment context are inherently more reliable because the declarant seeks medical help, not to trigger law enforcement action, and said the draft could be refined if the committee wanted narrower categories of providers.

Senator Shane, speaking from experience as a veterinarian, asked for empirical evidence that people are less likely to lie to physicians than to other interlocutors. Breitenbach acknowledged that no exception ensures infallibility but said the exception has long existed for physicians and that the bill seeks only to align the statute with contemporary practice where many initial statements are taken by nurses or other licensed clinicians.

The committee record includes written opponent testimony from Jay Houston Bales and Jorge de Hoyos of the Board of Indigent Defense Services legislative committee. No formal vote or committee action on the bill was recorded during the hearing.

Clarifying details recorded in the hearing: the reviser said the change appears on page 3, lines 19–21; the bill substitutes the statutory reference “physician” with the defined term “health care provider” (referencing KSA 65 49 15); the exception as described would apply in any context where the existing hearsay exception applies (criminal or civil), subject to the statute’s existing requirement that a judge find the statement was not made in bad faith.

The committee closed the public hearing on Senate Bill 127 with no further action taken at that meeting.