§ 91.002.Health Care Practitioner Liability

The protection, with four conditions that must all be met.

Subject to the insurance requirement, a practitioner who without compensation or expectation of compensation conducts a physical examination or medical screening to determine a patient's fitness to participate in a school-sponsored extracurricular activity is protected if:

(1) the practitioner was acting in good faith and in the course and scope of the practitioner's duties; (2) the act or omission occurred in the course of conducting the examination or screening; (3) the services were within the scope of the practitioner's license; and

(4) before the examination, the patient — or, for a minor or incompetent patient, the parent, managing conservator, legal guardian, or other person with legal responsibility — signs a written acknowledgment that the examination is not administered for or in expectation of compensation and of the limitations on the recovery of damages.

The acknowledgment is the condition most often missed. It must be signed before the examination, and it must state both things — that the care is free and that damages are limited.

The same two-part acknowledgment appears in the charitable immunity chapter's volunteer health care provider immunity and its hospital cap.

Note what this chapter lacks that those provisions have: there is no subsection excusing the acknowledgment where the patient is incapacitated or the responsible person is unavailable. That absence makes sense here — a sports physical is scheduled, not an emergency.