NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vanderbilt University Medical Center is facing a lawsuit from its transgender clinic patients, who claim that the hospital violated their privacy by sharing their records with Tennessee’s attorney general.
Two patients filed a lawsuit on Monday in Nashville Chancery Court, alleging that their records, along with records of over 100 individuals, were sent to Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti by Vanderbilt. The attorney general’s office has stated that they are conducting a routine fraud investigation regarding medical billing, unrelated to the patients or their families. Vanderbilt has stated that they were legally obligated to comply.
The patients argue that Vanderbilt should have been aware of Tennessee authorities’ discriminatory stance towards transgender individuals and should have redacted their personal identifying information before sharing the records.
Tennessee has stood out among conservative-led states for implementing numerous laws targeting transgender people, including some of the strictest anti-LGBTQ restrictions in the country. Families and advocates have voiced concerns over the harmful effects of such policies. The lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of all clinic patients whose medical records were released to Skrmetti.
“Against that backdrop, its failure to safeguard the privacy of its patients is particularly egregious,” the lawsuit states.
The attorney general’s office has confirmed that the hospital has been providing records of gender-related treatment billing since December 2022 and that the records have remained confidential. Elizabeth Lane Johnson, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, stated on Tuesday that the office is not a party to the lawsuit and referred questions to Vanderbilt.
John Howser, a spokesperson for VUMC, stated on Tuesday that it is common for health systems to receive such requests during billing probes and audits. He also mentioned that the decision to release patient records for any purpose is taken seriously, even in situations where compliance is legally required, such as in this case.
According to the lawsuit, many of the affected patients are state workers, their adult children, or spouses. Some are enrolled in TennCare, the state’s Medicaid plan. Additionally, some of the individuals whose records were released were not even patients of the transgender clinic. The lawsuit claims that the identities of over 100 current and former patients were disclosed without any redactions.
Since learning about the sharing of their information, the patients have experienced fear for their physical safety, significant anxiety, and distress that have affected their ability to work, increased home security measures, and caused them to withdraw from normal activities, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit accuses Vanderbilt of negligence, which led to emotional harm and violations of patient privacy protection and consumer protection laws. It seeks monetary damages, improved security procedures, an injunction preventing further release of records without notice, an acknowledgment by Vanderbilt that it violated its own privacy policy, and an admission that the policy inadequately informs patients about their rights regarding disclosures.
The hospital took several months before informing the patients that their medical information had been shared, only doing so after the requests were revealed as evidence in another court case. Howser stated that at that point, the hospital decided it was best for patients to hear the information from them rather than through media reports or other channels.
The attorney general’s office also requested additional information, including the names of all individuals referred to the transgender clinic who had at least one office visit. They also sought information about volunteers for Vanderbilt’s Trans Buddy initiative, which aims to enhance access to care and improve outcomes by providing emotional support to clinic patients.
Howser mentioned that Vanderbilt’s legal team is currently discussing with the attorney general’s office about which information is relevant to their investigation and will be provided by the hospital.
The attorney general’s requests came several months after conservative commentator Matt Walsh released videos in September, featuring a medical center doctor stating that gender-affirming procedures were “huge money makers” for hospitals. In response to pressure from Republican lawmakers and Gov. Bill Lee, who demanded an investigation, Vanderbilt suspended all gender-affirming surgeries for minors the following month.
Vanderbilt has stated that since the opening of its clinic in 2018, they have performed approximately five gender-affirming surgeries on minors annually, all with parental consent and none involving genital procedures.
Tennessee lawmakers subsequently enacted a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. A federal appeals court recently allowed the ban to take effect after a lower court judge had initially blocked it.
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Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville contributed to this report.