TN Senate passes Tennessee Recovery and Safe Harbor Act for COVID-19 liability protections
Last night around 7:00pm, the Tennessee General Assembly concluded its three-day special session. Before doing so, legislators passed SB8002/HB8001, known as the Tennessee COVID-19 Recovery Act, which provides important liability protections to individuals, healthcare providers, businesses, nonprofits, churches, local governments and other entities.
The bill declares that a plaintiff cannot bring a claim against a defendant for injuries related to contraction of COVID-19, unless the plaintiff can prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant proximately caused the injury by gross negligence or willful misconduct. The bill further provides that a plaintiff must file a verified complaint and a certificate of good faith evidencing that a physician believes, upon information and belief, that the injury was caused by an alleged act or omission of the defendant.
Late efforts were made to weaken the legislation in various ways, but ultimately those efforts failed and the bill passed by large margins in both the House and the Senate. Click here to see who voted in favor of the bill, and please take a second to thank your local legislators who voted in favor.
During the special session, the legislature also passed bills related to insurance coverage of telehealth and telemedicine and increased criminal penalties for protesters and rioters. The telehealth bill, which can be viewed here, requires health insurance companies to cover medically-necessary telemedicine services replacing in-person doctor visits for the same conditions at the same rate as in-person care. This requirement expires in April 2022. BlueCross & BlueShield had already publicly committed in May to covering telemedicine at the same rates as in-person services and this bill would require other insurance companies to take the same step.
We’ll be keeping an eye on these & other developments in the days ahead.
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