TN Code § 68-1-1003 (2021)
2021 Tennessee Code|Title 68 - Health, Safety and Environmental Protection|Chapter 1 - Department of Health|Part 10 - Tennessee Cancer Reporting System Act of 1983|§ 68-1-1003. Purpose of Chapter — Reports to Department — Format and Contents of Reports — Persons Authorized to Have Access to Patients Medical Records — Reimbursement — Failure to Report or Give Access to Records

  The purpose of this part is to ensure an accurate and continuing source of data concerning cancer and to provide appropriate data to members of the medical, scientific, and academic research communities for purposes of authorized institutional research, approved by the appropriate research committee of the applying institution, into the causes, types and demography of cancer, including, but not limited to, the occupation, family history, and personal habits of persons diagnosed with cancer.   In order to accomplish the purpose described in (a), all hospitals, laboratories, facilities, and health care practitioners shall report to the department, within six (6) months after the date of diagnosis of cancer in a patient, information contained in the medical records of patients who have cancer; provided, that health care practitioners are not required to report information on patients with cancer who are directly referred to or have been previously admitted to a hospital or a facility for cancer diagnosis or treatment.   The reports required by this section shall be made in the format and shall contain the information required by the department. The department shall make available the necessary information regarding format and data to enable hospitals, laboratories, facilities, and health care practitioners to make accurate reports to the department.   The commissioner or the commissioner's authorized representative may take the steps necessary to avoid duplicate reporting of information on the same patients, including, but not limited to, waiving the requirement for a health care practitioner to report information on cancer patients who are hospitalized or confined to a nursing home, where information on those patients has been reported by the hospital, nursing home, or other reporting source.   The commissioner or the commissioner's authorized representative shall be permitted to have access to the medical records of cancer patients that are maintained by hospitals, laboratories, facilities, and health care practitioners where necessary, to identify cases of cancer and to establish the characteristics of the cancer, the treatment of the cancer, or the medical status of an identified cancer patient.   If a hospital, laboratory, facility, or health care practitioner fails to report the required information to the department in an acceptable format by the required deadline, the commissioner or the commissioner's authorized representative may obtain the information by a direct examination of those patients' medical records. In those cases, the hospital, laboratory, facility, or health care practitioner shall reimburse the department for the department's reasonable expenses incurred in obtaining the information in this manner. The commissioner shall establish, by rule, the maximum amount of reimbursement that may be sought. A hospital, laboratory, facility, or health care practitioner from whom reimbursement is sought may appeal the assessment of expenses under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5.   A hospital, laboratory, facility, or health care practitioner that fails to report information or allow access to records, as required by this section, shall be informed by the department that compliance with the requirements of this part is mandatory.