AN ACT to provide liability protection for health care workers when responding to in‑State incidents outside their hospital or normal jurisdiction as members of a State Medical Assistance Team.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 166A‑14 reads as rewritten:
"§ 166A‑14.  Immunity and exemption.
(a)	All functions hereunder and all other activities relating to emergency management are hereby declared to be governmental functions. Neither the State nor any political subdivision thereof, nor, except in cases of willful misconduct, gross negligence or bad faith, any emergency management worker complying with or reasonably attempting to comply with this Article or any order, rule or regulation promulgated pursuant to the provisions of this Article or pursuant to any ordinance relating to any emergency management measures enacted by any political subdivision of the State, shall be liable for the death of or injury to persons, or for damage to property as a result of any such activity.
(b)	The rights of any person to receive benefits to which the person would otherwise be entitled under this Article or under the Workers' Compensation Law or under any pension law, and the right of any such person to receive any benefits or compensation under any act of Congress shall not be affected by performance of emergency management functions.
(c)	Any requirement for a license to practice any professional, mechanical or other skill shall not apply to any authorized emergency management worker who shall, in the course of performing the worker's duties as such, practice such professional, mechanical or other skill during a state of disaster.
(d)	As used in this section, the term "emergency management worker" shall include any full or part‑time paid, volunteer or auxiliary employee of this State or other states, territories, possessions or the District of Columbia, of the federal government or any neighboring country or of any political subdivision thereof or of any agency or organization performing emergency management services at any place in this State, subject to the order or control of or pursuant to a request of the State government or any political subdivision thereof. The term "emergency management worker" under this section shall also include any health care worker performing health care services as a member of a hospital‑based or county‑based State Medical Assistance Team designated by the North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services and any person performing emergency health care services under G.S. 90‑12.2.
(e)	Any emergency management worker, as defined in this section, performing emergency management services at any place in this State pursuant to agreements, compacts or arrangements for mutual aid and assistance to which the State or a political subdivision thereof is a party, shall possess the same powers, duties, immunities and privileges the person would ordinarily possess if performing duties in the State, or political subdivision thereof in which normally employed or rendering services."

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 30th day of June, 2006.

	s/	 Charlie S. Dannelly
		 Deputy President Pro Tempore of the Senate

	s/	 James B. Black
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved 3:07 p.m. this 10th day of July, 2006