§ 8.01-581.12.Arbitration of medical malpractice claims.

This section lets patients and health care providers agree — before or after a dispute arises — to arbitrate malpractice claims under Virginia’s general arbitration chapter, Chapter 21. But that agreement only binds the patient or claimant if it builds in a consumer protection: a window of at least sixty days after health care ends during which the patient, guardian, conservator, committee, or personal representative can withdraw from the agreement and decline arbitration.

That sixty-day window shifts for patients who can’t exercise it themselves. If the patient is a minor without a guardian, or incapacitated without a guardian or conservator, when treatment ends, or if the patient dies during or shortly after treatment, the clock instead starts running when a guardian, conservator, or personal representative is appointed and qualified.

The arbitration process itself proceeds under Chapter 21’s general rules, and notably, the same medical review panel appointed under this article can also serve as the arbitration panel — either because the arbitration agreement designates it or because the parties agree to it. Finally, an insurer of the health care provider is bound by an arbitration award only to the extent it would have been bound by a court judgment on the same matter, and only if the insurer agreed beforehand to be bound by the arbitration.