68-11-312 - Communication between health care providers and their patients. - Tennessee Statutes

68-11-312. Communication between health care providers and their patients.

(a)  It is the public policy of the state of Tennessee to promote effective communications between health care providers while rendering care to their patients.

(b)  (1)  There is no implied covenant of  confidentiality or other restriction that precludes:

          (A)  Health care providers from communicating with each other in the course of providing care and treatment to a patient; or

          (B)  A health care provider from responding to a request from a hospital regarding entries in the patient's records of the requesting hospital made or reviewed by that health care provider during the course of providing care and treatment to the patient in the hospital.

     (2)  Notwithstanding subdivision (b)(1), any information received from a health care provider that corrects or modifies a patient's hospital record shall be made a part of the patient's hospital record with a notation as to the date the information was supplied and the name or names of the person or persons supplying the information.

(c)  This section shall not be construed to authorize any disclosure of information that would be prohibited pursuant to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), 42 U.S.C. § 1320d et seq.

[Acts 2007, ch. 391, § 1.]