LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Tennessee Health Care Update The “Crotty Fix”
On April 16, 2024, the Tennessee legislature passed a law addressing an important aspect of medical bills recoverable in Tennessee health care liability cases. In 2023, the Supreme Court of Tennessee in Crotty v. Flora interpreted Tenn. Code Ann. 29-26-119 to allow a plaintiff in a health care liability case to recover the full, undiscounted amount of medical bills charged rather than the discounted or “paid” amount of the medical bills for plaintiff’s who paid for private insurance “in whole or in part, privately and individually.”
The legislature has now addressed this ruling with HB2001/SB2253 (PDF), deemed the “Crotty fix” bill, which sought to limit recoveries of medical bills in health care liability cases to only the amounts actually paid by insurance, rather than the amounts charged.
The bill abrogates the collateral source rule for health care liability cases and makes clear that a plaintiff may only recover “actual economic losses” that are limited to the amounts paid by the plaintiff and the amount that the plaintiff’s providers “accept” as full payment for any reasonable and necessary care. This will significantly reduce the amount of medical bills a plaintiff can recover in health care liability cases in Tennessee.
Notably, the law only applies to cases filed on or after September 29, 2023. Health care defendants should be aware of this change as the governor is likely to sign this law in the near future.
April 2024
John Floyd, Jr.
jfloydjr@wickersmith.com
