TN Law Promotes Effective Communications Between Health Care Providers While Rendering Care to Patients

Public Chapter No. 391 (Amends T.C.A. § 68-11-312)

T.C.A. § 68-11-312(b) states: "There is no implied covenant of confidentiality or other restriction that precludes (1) health care providers from communicating with each other in the course of providing care and treatment to a patient, or (2) a health care provider from responding to a request from a hospital regarding entries in the patient's records of the requesting hospital made or reviewed by that health care provider during the course of providing care and treatment to the patient in the hospital . . . ."

Effective date: July 1, 2007

TN AG Opinion: Notice to Bureau of TennCare re: Medicaid/Medicare Benefits Due to Separation Asset Division

Tennessee Attorney General Opinion No. 08-31, February 20, 2008
(Notice to Bureau of TennCare re: Medicaid/Medicare Benefits Due to Separation Asset Division)

Questions:

1. In any case seeking a divorce or legal separation in which the disabled spouse has a conservator and is receiving either Medicare/Medicaid benefits, is notice to the Bureau of
   TennCare required as a prerequisite to granting relief?
2. In cases seeking a divorce or legal separation involving a disabled spouse but where court filings lack information as to whether or not the disabled spouse is receiving TennCare benefits, is notice to the Bureau of TennCare a prerequisite to the maintenance of such complaints?
3. When notice has been provided to TennCare but plaintiff fails to enumerate grounds for divorce or separation pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §36-4-102, is there a basis for granting relief under this statute?

Opinions:

1. No. In cases seeking a divorce or legal separation there is no statutory requirement of notice to the Bureau of TennCare as a prerequisite to granting relief to the disabled spouse already receiving TennCare benefits.
2. No. In any case seeking a divorce or legal separation there is no statutory requirement of notice to the Bureau of TennCare as a prerequisite to the maintenance of such complaints when information is lacking about whether or not the disabled spouse is receiving TennCare benefits.
3. While courts are given broad discretion in granting relief in divorce/separation matters, Tenn. Code Ann. §36-4-102 requires that a complaint requesting an order granting legal
   separation must set forth grounds for such relief pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §36-4-101. Further, if the other party objects to legal separation, the party seeking such relief must establish grounds under Tenn. Code Ann. §36-4-101.

CMS Proposes Rules to Give States More Flexibility in Designing Medicaid Plans

[Source: Health Lawyers Weekly, February 22, 2008 - AHLA]

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a pair of rules February 22 that would give states more flexibility in designing their Medicaid programs and require increased cost-sharing from beneficiaries.

The rules, which would implement provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, are the latest in a series of regulations to implement the administration’s goals of aligning Medicaid more closely with private market insurance and giving states more control over their Medicaid benefits packages, CMS said in a press release.

Under one rule, states will have the opportunity to offer beneficiaries healthcare that has the same value as plans that are being offered to other populations in the state, through alternative benefit packages called "benchmark plans," the release said.

Continue reading

Read the proposed premiums and cost sharing rule, 73 Fed. Reg. 9727.

Read the proposed rule giving states flexibility, 73 Fed. Reg. 9714.

View CMS' press release.