New Health Care Liability Action Opinion: Trial Court's Dismissal of Plaintiffs' Case for Failure to Provide HIPAA-complaint Authorization for the Release of Medical Records Upheld on Appeal

The Tennessee Court of Appeals recently released its opinion in Owens v. Stephens, No. E2018-01564-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 16, 2020).  The syllabus from the slip opinion reads:

This is a healthcare liability action resulting from the death of a child. The defendants moved to dismiss the action for failure to comply with the notice requirements set out in Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-26-121(a)(2)(E). The trial court agreed with the defendants and dismissed the action without prejudice. The plaintiffs appeal the dismissal to this court. We affirm.

Here is a link to the slip opinion:

http://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/owens_v._stephens_e2018-01564.pdf

NOTE: I think this opinion is incorrectly decided.  The defendants should have been able to share the relevant medical records as part of their "health care operations."  Ergo, no prejudice.  Please see the note in this post for a more detailed explanation of my point on this topic: http://theduncanlawfirm.blogspot.com/search?q=operations+.