Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1200-07-03-.07 - Requirements for Confidentiality of Discharge Data

All discharge data required to be reported by hospitals must remain confidential until it is processed and verified by the Commissioner of Health.  Patient identifiers may not be released to the public at any time.  A patient’s employment information may not be released except to the employer.  To protect patient confidentiality, data may be released to the public only under the following circumstances:

1. The patient’s address city is removed;
2. The month and day of all dates is removed;
3. The zip code is not shown if it contains less than 20,000 people;
4. The birth year or age for patients above 89 must be removed;
5. Information that could be reasonably used to identify the patient must be deleted.

Any agency that receives confidential hospital claims data or reports must conform to the confidentiality standards of the Department of Health.  The Commissioner may authorize the use of the collected information to provide for or protect the public health.