Chosak

I. INTRODUCTION

In 1975, the Legislature enacted the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 (MICRA), legislation designed to lower medical malpractice insurance premiums by limiting malpractice litigation. Several provisions of MICRA, including Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5, are made applicable to litigation against “health care providers,” a phrase the statutes define as including persons who are licensed or certified by the state to practice medicine. In this appeal, we must decide whether the term “health care provider,” as so defined, includes a medical student lawfully practicing medicine under a statutory exemption to those licensing requirements. We conclude that it does.

Defendant Lynn Valdez, an optometry student at the University of California, injured plaintiff Eve Chosak’s ankle in a mishap during preparation for an eye examination. When the injury failed to improve over the next two weeks, plaintiff was examined in an emergency room by defendant Michelle Dhanak, a licensed physician. Dhanak diagnosed the injury as a sprain without ordering further tests and sent plaintiff away without treatment.

Nearly two years later, plaintiff filed a…