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PROVEAUX v. MED. UNIVER. OF SOUTH CAROLINA3/10/1997
endered by MUSC faculty. All of MUSC's patient-related revenue is billed and collected by UMA.
UMA allocates some of the revenue to the Neurosurgery Department to be used for administrative and other expenses, including faculty compensation. Dr. Perot receives separate paychecks from MUSC and UMA. In 1992, Dr. Perot received $92,730.22 from MUSC and $279,308.00 from UMA.
In determining physician immunity under the pre-amendment version of § 15-78-70(c), the operative language is whether the claim "involved services for which the physician . . . was paid, should have been paid, or expected to be paid at the time of the rendering of the services from any source other than the salary appropriated by the governmental entity." The words of a statute must be given their plain and ordinary meaning. Forest Beach Villas Horizontal Prop. v. Smith, 314 S.C. 134, 442 S.E.2d 173 (1994). Aside from a legislative function, the plain and ordinary meaning of "appropriate" is "to set apart" or "authorize. Thus, a plain reading of subsection indicates a physician is immune from liability if he was not paid for the services in question from any source other than the salary authorized or set apart by the governmental entity.
Here, the governmental entity is MUSC. See S.C. Code Ann. § 15-78-30(a), (d), and (h) (Supp. 1995). Over two years before this cause of action arose, the General Assembly added to the chapter of the code regulating Colleges and Institutions of Higher Learning which provides as follows:
§ 59-101-195. Maximum compensation of medical
school physicians and employees.
The maximum compensation of any physician or other
employee of a medical school of the State of South
Carolina shall be approved in advance annually by the
President or the Board of Trustees of that medical
school. All compensation must be approved by someone
other than the recipient thereof. Compensation shall
include all remuneration obtained, through a
professional service organization or otherwise, with
use of state owned facilities, equipment or supplies.
Under this provision of law, it is clear that 1) the President or the Board of Trustees of MUSC must approve the maximum compensation of any physician at MUSC and 2) such compensation includes all remuneration obtained with use of state owned facilities, equipment or supplies. Thus, since at least 1990, MUSC has been required to authorize a physician's total salary, including that received from the practice plan through UMA.
Since Dr. Perot's salary authorized by MUSC included payment for his treatment of Terry Proveaux, he qualified for immunity under § 15-78-70 in 1992, at the time the Proveauxes's causes of action accrued. The fact that the General Assembly subsequently amended the statute to specifically cover a "practice plan" does not undermine this conclusion. See Cotty v. Yartzeff, 309 S.C. 259, 422 S.E.2d 100 (1992) (although subsequent amendments are generally presumed to change existing law, they may in some instances be interpreted as clarifying it).
CONCLUSION
We need not address the Proveauxes' remaining arguments. The order granting summary judgment is AFFIRMED.
FINNEY, C.J., MOORE, WALLER and BURNETT, JJ., concur.
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