Everyone knows the catch-phrase from the movie “Love Story”: Love means never having to say you’re sorry. Apparently, doctors in Pennsylvania have a similar saying: A medical degree means never daring to say you’re sorry — if you don’t want to be sued.

Well, no more. The state House of Representatives last week passed Senate Bill 379, the Benevolent Gesture Medical Professional Liability Act, which enables doctors to express sorrow to a patient and patient’s family without the threat of being sued for it.

Health-care providers in Pennsylvania routinely have been advised against speaking compassionately and honestly with patients when a medical error occurs, fearing that their statements will be used against them in court.

Many patients interpret a doctor’s lack of sympathy as uncaring or aloof. Patients feel frustrated and hurt. They file lawsuits that might otherwise not be filed. Anger — not greed — is the driving force behind most medical malpractice lawsuits, according to research cited by the Pennsylvania Health Care Association.

Benevolent Gesture takes a big step away from the litigious stand off between doctors and lawyers that peaked about a decade ago when the Legislature took up tort reform. Hundreds from the medical and legal professions descended on Harrisburg intent on influencing the reforms that were enacted in 2003.

Former adversaries, lawyers and doctors have thrown their mutual support behind the apology legislation as a way of restoring compassion in the medical field without increasing the risk of being sued.

Specifically, the medical apology act allows doctors to make benevolent gestures and not have those statements used against them, as long as such statements are not an admission of negligence or fault. The unanimous 202-0 House vote follows a state Senate vote of 50-0 on June 25. Gov. Tom Corbett signed the bill later last week. Corbett had included the apology act when he introduced his Healthy Pennsylvania plan earlier in the fall.

While the new law provides protections for what medical professionals say, it does not alter their liability, and it does not take away the patient’s right to sue for malpractice.

However, states that have enacted apology or benevolent gesture laws have seen a decrease in the number of medical malpractice claims — which ultimately should lower the overall cost of health care. Thirty-five states, including neighbors Ohio, Maryland and Delaware, have passed apology legislation.

Simply put, Senate Bill 379 allows medical professionals to be human; to express the concern and sympathy a patient would expect when a medical mistake has occurred.

“As physicians, it is part of our job — part of our moral and ethical responsibility — to respond to patients and families when there are less than favorable outcomes,” says C. Richard Schott M.D., president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society. “Medicine is not an exact science, and outcomes may be unpredictable. Benevolent gestures are always appropriate and physicians should not have to fear giving them.”

Of course, true love requires the occasional apology. We apologize to loved ones all the time because we hurt each other all the time, not intending to cause harm. Doctors, who take an oath to do no harm, should be afforded the same courtesy — and now they legally have it. Medicine in Pennsylvania is better because of the change.