Hospitals and healthcare providers in Tennessee must comply with the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, the state’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday, overturning decisions at two levels of the state’s judicial system.
The Tennessee Consumer Protection Act allows a person who has lost money or property because of an unfair or deceptive business practice to sue the entity that engaged in the unfair or deceptive conduct. After a pair of plaintiffs sued a healthcare provider for filing liens against their causes of action toward individuals who hurt them instead of billing the plaintiffs’ insurance providers, two lower courts had sided with the hospital, ruling that hospitals were not subject to claims under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act for actions arising from medical treatment.
But the state Supreme Court disagreed. In a unanimous vote, it ruled that there are distinctions between the healthcare actions of a hospital and its business practices, and those business practices should be subject to the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, just like everybody else.
A copy of the ruling in the case of Roy Franks v. Tiffany Sykes can be accessed by clicking here.
“…when a plaintiff alleges an injury caused by a health care provider’s business practices — including, but not limited to, deceptive practices in advertising, billing, or collections — the plaintiff may state a claim under the Act,” wrote Justice Sharon Lee of the Tennessee Supreme Court, who authored its opinion on the case. “When a plaintiff asserts a claim that an injury is caused by a health care provider’s professional conduct, such as a deviation from the applicable standard of medical care, then the Act does not apply because that claim would be based on medical negligence under the Tennessee Health Care Liability Act.”
