This article was submitted by TMA's Legal Department. Reach out to legal@tnmed.org with questions.

TMA and the American Medical Association (AMA) have weighed in on an important case that will impact a portion of the hard-fought medical liability reforms achieved over fifteen years ago. The organizations recently jointly filed an amicus brief with the Tennessee Supreme Court in the case of Buckner v. Complete Wellness Chiropractic Center et al. An amicus brief is a “friend of the court” brief filed with appellate courts by non-parties to the lawsuit to impart to the court the interests of a greater constituency, in this case, Tennessee physicians.

In Buckner, a patient being treated for back pain brought a healthcare liability action (medical malpractice lawsuit) against more than a dozen Tennessee medical care providers, alleging they negligently failed to timely diagnose and treat her cauda equina syndrome.  The medical defendants sought to dismiss the lawsuit pursuant to the Tennessee Health Care Liability Act’s (HCLA) pre-suit notice requirement. That statute, fought for by TMA over fifteen years ago, requires that a plaintiff in any health care liability lawsuit attach a signed HIPAA-compliant medical authorization prior to filing the lawsuit.  In this case, the patient only included unsigned HIPAA authorizations and, when alerted to that fact, insisted that she either complied or substantially complied with the statute. 

The trial court properly rejected the plaintiff’s arguments and dismissed the lawsuit, finding the patient failed to satisfy the HCLA’s substantive requirements.  The Tennessee Court of Appeals, however, reversed the trial court’s decision, stating that “acting on procedural technicalities is contrary to the purposes and intent” of the HCLA’s pre-suit notice requirements.  It remanded the case for further evidentiary proceedings to assess whether some or all of the medical defendants received compliant medical authorizations. The Defendant health care providers appealed the ruling to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The issue facing the Tennessee Supreme Court is whether the trial court erred in dismissing the plaintiff’s healthcare liability action for failure to provide a signed HIPAA-compliant medical authorizations with her pre-suit notice, as required by Tennessee’s Health Care Liability Act (HCLA). The TMA-AMA brief, prepared by AMA’s outside counsel law firm, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, provides legal and policy arguments urging the Court to reverse the Court of Appeals’ decision.

“TMA’s Board of Trustees expresses its gratitude to the AMA and its outside counsel for the excellent work identifying this opportunity and for crafting an amicus brief that we believe will sway the Court in favor of physicians and other health care professionals and set positive precedence for years to come,” stated Leslie Treece, MD, Board Chair.

Oral arguments in the case will take place during the Court’s 2026 session.