Transgender patients sue after Tennessee Attorney General obtained their medical records

Transgender patients are suing Vanderbilt University Medical Center after the hospital turned over complete copies of their medical records to Tennessee’s Attorney General. The files were requested as part of the AG’s on-going investigation into the medical center’s gender-affirming care services.

The complaint posits that Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has a history of targeting the transgender community, and that VUMC had an obligation to protect its patients’ records, given Skrmetti’s history.

Health privacy laws, like HIPAA, make exceptions for law enforcement. A spokesperson for VUMC says it was required to comply with the attorney general, in accordance with state and federal law.

Nashville civil rights attorney Abby Rubenfeld disagrees.

“I don’t think this fits within the exceptions,” Rubenfeld says. “They could have provided anonymized names, as we did in the complaint.”

Rubenfeld is representing the unnamed plaintiffs along with her co-counsel, Tricia Herzfeld. Court documents refer to the plaintiffs as Patient 1 and Patient 2.

“They did not have to release people’s medical records. And we’re not just talking about your name and your address and your social, which is bad enough, but we’re talking about their medical records, pictures of body parts, you know, X-rays,” Rubenfeld says.

The complaint calls Skrmetti’s requests “overly broad.” The attorney general’s investigation revolves around a VUMC doctor who the attorney general alleges billed the state insurance for gender-affirming services, despite that care not being covered by the plan.

However, Skrmetti’s requests went beyond those on the state’s insurance plan. It included all patients who were referred to the VUMC for gender-affirming services, “even if they never had more than an initial office visit,” according to the complaint.

That worries Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza, a patient at VUMC whose medical records are now in state hands.

“Nothing good has ever come out of an entity creating a list of a demographic of people. The state legislature here in Tennessee is creating conditions for burning flesh, and that terrifies me,” Espinoza says.

The Attorney General’s Office says it is not a party in this lawsuit, but that its investigation is about providers, not patients.