§ 91A.002.Immunity from Liability

The immunity, and it is simpler than the health care practitioner chapter in one important way.

An audiologist or speech-language pathologist who without compensation or expectation of compensation conducts a speech, language, or hearing evaluation or screening is immune from civil liability for any act or omission resulting in the death or injury to the patient if:

(1) they were acting in good faith and in the course and scope of their duties; (2) the act or omission occurred in the course of conducting the examination or screening; and (3) the services were within the scope of their licence.

Three conditions, not four. There is no signed acknowledgment requirement — the condition that appears in the health care practitioner chapter, the charitable immunity volunteer provision, and the charitable hospital cap.

That is a meaningful simplification. A practitioner screening two hundred children at a school need not obtain a signed form from each family beforehand.

There is also no insurance requirement, where the health care practitioner chapter conditions its protection on a $300,000 policy.

And the protection is stated as immunity rather than a liability limit, which is the stronger form.

The differences track the risk. A hearing screening cannot injure the patient in the way a physical examination or a course of treatment can, and the realistic claim is a missed diagnosis rather than harm from the procedure.