NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Patients from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) are suing the medical center for turning over medical records to the Tennessee Attorney General.
According to the lawsuit, transgender people's medical records which likely included things like x-rays, medication lists, photos of genitalia as well as patients' sexual histories were all given to the attorney general.
The two plaintiffs state that the "State of Tennessee has been negatively targeting the transgender community for years," and that as part of that campaign, the attorney general suddenly demanded the records of those at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Transgender Health Clinic.
"VUMC knew about the State’s active targeting of the transgender community. It had a duty to protect their medical information and their identities," the lawsuit reads. "Nevertheless, without its patients’ knowledge, VUMC turned over non-anonymized medical records for more than 100 current and former patients without redacting their identities."
The suit claims patients included individuals who are on the state employees’ health plan and their family members and people who receive their health care through TennCare.
Civil rights attorney Abby Rubenfeld is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. She says not once, but on at least three occasions Vanderbilt gave the AG medical records and didn't fight back.
"In my mind, as Vanderbilt put up no resistance they kept asking for more and Vanderbilt kept accommodating them," Rubenfeld said.
The AG's office maintains that it needed information about patients for a billing fraud investigation.
"Even if you assume [Vanderbilt] had to do this, which we don't agree that they did, but even if they did, they made no effort to anonymize the people or to limit what they gave. Like, why did the state need... why did they need pictures of body parts? They didn't," said Rubenfeld.
The suit's main claim is that the medical center failed its "contractual and legal duties, failed its patients, and has caused them serious harm."
NewsChannel 5 reached out to the Attorney General's Office for comment on the suit. The office responded in part that the AG is not a party to this lawsuit, and that questions should be directed to VUMC.
Press Secretary for Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti continued as follows:
"As to questions about the Attorney General’s Office’s civil investigation into potential medical billing fraud at VUMC, please refer to the Office’s June 21, 2023 statement. In the statement, we explained that this is an ordinary medical billing fraud investigation pursuant to the Office’s enforcement authority under the Tennessee False Claims Act and Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act, that review of patient records is a regular part of such investigations and is necessary to evaluate whether any fraud occurred, and that the investigation is directed solely at VUMC and related providers, and not at patients or their families."
The Tennessee Equality Project issued a statement as well:
"Transgender people across the state are worried that this is the beginning of creating a dox list of trans people and it has created much anxiety and fear for many in the community. The AG office is continuing to create fear in the transgender community by requesting these documents. If it is in fact a fraud investigation, why is it so hyper focused on patients and not the facility. These appear to be the full detailed medical records of these patients. Transgender people know we are a target, and this is another way to continue to hit our community and make us feel unwelcome in our own state."
VUMC's news and communications office shared a statement with NewsChannel 5 about the class action lawsuit:
"At VUMC, we are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards. Pursuant to that commitment, we endeavor to exercise transparency and accountability in our communications with patients and colleagues.
In November 2022, VUMC received a Civil Investigative Demand or “CID” from the Tennessee Attorney General. Two additional CIDs were received by VUMC in March 2023. The CIDs requested information for an investigation into VUMC’s billing practices for people enrolled in state sponsored insurance plans who received gender-affirming health care at VUMC.
The Tennessee Attorney General has legal authority to require that VUMC provide medical records that are relevant to a billing investigation of this nature. It is common for health systems to receive requests for patient records related to billing investigations and audits by government agencies, and Federal and State law (including HIPAA) permits law enforcement agencies to obtain patient medical records in an investigation without the patient’s prior consent. All health systems are obligated to comply with these requests in law enforcement investigations, and VUMC did so. The State has told VUMC multiple times that the investigation is not focused on any patient and that the State will maintain records obtained in strict confidence.
The CIDs also requested further information related to VUMC’s transgender services. Our legal counsel are in on-going discussions with the Attorney General’s office about what information is relevant to their investigation and will be provided by VUMC.
Finally, the decision by VUMC to notify our patients of the request for their healthcare information resulted from events in an ongoing lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the State in which lawyers for the plaintiffs filed the CIDs as part of the public court record. This lawsuit has been covered extensively in the media and challenges the constitutionality of Tennessee’s new law banning care of transgender minors. While VUMC is not a party to this lawsuit, and even though patient names and birthdates were removed from the information filed by the plaintiffs, the filings made clear that individual patient medical and billing records had been requested by the Attorney General. Because this information was now available to the public, we felt it would be best for our patients to be notified of these developments from us rather than through media reports or other means.
VUMC places paramount importance on securing patient privacy and confidentiality, as permitted by state and federal laws. By providing this information, we hope to reassure our patients and our employees that the decision to release patient records for any purpose is never taken lightly, even in situations such as this where VUMC was legally compelled to produce the patient records."
