Sec. 1. 16 MRSA §357, as amended by PL 1987, c. 791, §3, is further amended to read:

§357. Hospital records and copies of records

Records kept by hospitals and other medical facilities licensed under the laws of this State and records which that the court finds are required to be kept by the laws of any other state or territory, or the District of Columbia, or by the laws and regulations of the United States of America pertaining to the Department of National Defense and the Veterans Administration, by hospitals and other medical facilities similarly conducted or operated or which that, being incorporate, offer treatment free of charge, shall be are admissible, as evidence in the courts of this State so far as such those records relate to the treatment and medical history of such cases and the court shall admit copies of such those records, if certified by the persons in with custody thereof of those records to be true and complete, but nothing therein contained shall be in those records is admissible as evidence which that has reference to the question of liability. Copies of photographic or microphotographic records so kept by hospitals and medical facilities, when duly certified by the person in charge of the hospital and other medical facility, shall must be admitted in evidence equally with the original photographs or microphotographs.

Notwithstanding this section, the result of a laboratory or any other test kept by a hospital or other medical facility, which that reflects blood-alcohol concentration, shall must be available to the State in a criminal proceeding through ordinary discovery procedures despite any claim of confidentiality or privilege, and may not be excluded as evidence in a criminal or civil proceeding by reason of any claim of confidentiality or privilege and may be admitted provided that if the result is relevant and reliable evidence if the proceeding is one in which the operator of a motor vehicle or watercraft is alleged to have operated under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs, and the court is satisfied that probable cause exists to believe that the operator committed the offense charged. If a defendant denies culpability for any charged crime involving operation of a motor vehicle or watercraft while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs, and if the court is satisfied that probable cause exists to believe that the operator committed the offense charged, the defendant's medical records reflecting medical treatment resulting from that operation of a motor vehicle or watercraft must be available to the State through ordinary discovery procedures and the defendant is deemed to have