(a) (1) The proceedings, minutes, records, or reports of the quality assurance committees having the responsibility for reviewing and evaluating the quality of medical, nursing, or other care delivered in a long-term care facility, or of professional consultants engaged by long-term care facilities to study quality-of-care issues identified by the committee, and any other records, other than those records described in subsection (c) of this section, compiled or accumulated by the staff of a facility in connection with the review or evaluation, together with all communications or reports originating in the committee are:

(A) Exempt from discovery and disclosure to the same extent that proceedings, minutes, records, or reports of committees evaluating quality of medical or hospital care are exempt under § 16-46-105(a)(1);

(B) Not admissible in any legal proceeding; and

(C) Absolutely privileged communication.

(2) Testimony as to events occurring during the activities of the committee is:

(A) Exempt from discovery and disclosure to the same extent that testimony before committees evaluating quality of medical or hospital care are exempt under § 16-46-105(a)(2); and

(B) Not admissible as evidence in any legal proceeding.

(b) This section does not prevent disclosure of the data mentioned in subsection (a) of this section to an appropriate state or federal regulatory agency that by statute or regulation is entitled to access to the data.

(c) (1) This section does not apply to or affect the discovery or admissibility into evidence in a civil proceeding of the following records:

(A) Records or reports made in the regular course of business by a long-term care facility or other healthcare provider that are not created by or for the committee;

(B) Records or reports otherwise available from original sources, including without limitation the medical record of specific residents;

(C) Records or reports required to be kept by applicable law or regulation that are not created by or for the committee;

(D) Incident and accident reports;

(E) The long-term care facility's operating budgets; or

(F) Records of the committee's meeting dates.

(2) Without waiving any privilege, appointments to the committee are available to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Attorney General's office.