Frank H. McNiel v. Susan R. Cooper

This appeal involves the authority of the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners to review the medical records of a physician’s patients. After the Board requested access to his patients’  records in accordance with Tenn. Code Ann. § 63-1-117 (2004), the physician filed a declaratory judgment action in the Chancery Court for Davidson County challenging the constitutionality of the statute. The physician asserted that the statutory procedure for gaining access to medical records amounted to an unreasonable search and seizure because it failed to provide him with pre-enforcement judicial review of the reasonableness of the Board’s request. He also claimed that the statute’s notice provisions violated due process. Both the physician and the Board filed motions for summary judgment. The trial court concluded that the physician received adequate notice of the purpose of the request for medical records. It also determined that Tenn. Code Ann. § 63-1-117(a)(3), the portion of the statute authorizing disciplinary sanctions against physicians who willfully fail to produce requested records, was unconstitutional and awarded the physician $20,916 in attorney’s fees. The Board perfected this appeal. We concur with the trial court’s conclusion that the physician received adequate notice of the reasons for the request for medical records. However, we have determined that physicians in Tennessee have no reasonable expectation that they can shield their patients’ records from the Board’s regulatory oversight and that the Board may discipline physicians who willfully refuse to comply with lawful requests for patient records that comply with Tenn. Code Ann. § 63-1-117.