Health Care - As enacted, requires the department of health to make available to the public on its website all inspection criteria required for compliance by pain management clinics; makes other changes relative to pain , the official text

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                             PUBLIC CHAPTER NO. 861

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 2279

                                                             By Briggs

                                           Substituted for: House Bill No. 2572

                                                     By Kumar, Pearson

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 63 and Title 68, relative to pain management.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

          SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 68-1-128(c)(1), is amended by deleting
the subdivision and substituting:

                   (1) In addition to identifying prescribers under subsections (a) and (b), beginning July
          1, 2017, and annually thereafter, the department shall identify high-risk prescribers based on
          clinical outcomes, including patient overdoses. The department shall determine the criteria
          for identifying a provider as a high-risk prescriber and whether a provider is a high-risk
          prescriber. The department shall make the criteria for identifying a provider as a high-risk
          prescriber publicly available on the department's website. A provider identified as a high-risk
          prescriber under this subdivision (c)(1) is subject to selected chart review and investigation
          by the department.

          SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 68-1-128(c)(3)(D), is amended by
deleting "four-week" and substituting "thirty-day".

          SECTION 3. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 68-1-128(c), is amended by adding the
following as a new subdivision:

                    (7) The department shall expunge a prescriber's identification as a high-risk
          prescriber under subdivision (c)(1) and notify the prescriber in writing of the expungement
          upon receiving proof that the prescriber has completed the course requirements of
          subdivision (c)(3)(A) and either:

                             (A) None of the patient overdoses that formed the basis for the prescriber's
                    identification as a high-risk prescriber involved a substance prescribed by the
                    prescriber; or

                             (8) The department does not identify the prescriber as a high-risk prescriber
                    for the next two (2) consecutive years.

          SECTION 4. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 63-1-306, is amended by inserting the
following as a new subsection (c), and redesignating the existing subsection (c) and remaining
subsections accordingly:

                    (c)(1) A pain management specialist may provide coverage for and serve as medical
                    director in place of a medical director who is temporarily unable to fulfill the medical
                    director's duties because of illness, vacation, or other unavailability. The coverage
                    may be provided on a temporary, short-term basis and does not require the in-person
                    presence of the pain management specialist providing the coverage if that pain
                    management specialist is immediately available by telephone.

                              (2) Temporary service as a medical director under subdivision (c)(1) does not
                    count toward the limit of four (4) pain management clinics at which a pain
                    management specialist may serve as medical director under§ 63-1-309(c).
SB 2279
                             (3) The department shall not require a medical director to notify the

                   department of the identity of another pain management specialist serving as medical
                   director under subdivision (c)(1) during the medical director's absence.
         SECTION 5. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 63-1-309(c), is amended by deleting
"weekly" and substituting "quarterly".
         SECTION 6. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 63-1-316, is amended by adding the
following as a new subsection:
                   (k) The commissioner or the commissioner's designee may issue an advisory private
          letter ruling to an affected licensee that requests a ruling on a matter within this part. A
          private letter ruling issued under this subsection (k) affects only the licensee that requested
         the ruling and has no precedential value for another inquiry or a future contested case. A
          dispute regarding a private letter ruling may, at the election of the commissioner or the
          commissioner's designee, be resolved under § 4-5-223.
          SECTION 7. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 63-1-316(c), is amended by adding the
following to the end of the subsection:
          The department shall make all inspection criteria required for compliance by pain
          management clinics available to the public on the department's website.
          SECTION 8. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.

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         SENATE BILL NO. 2279

PASSED:  April 7, 2026

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                                             RANDY 'Mc"ALLY
                        '

                           SPEAKER OF THE SENATE

                        CAMER~SEXTON,SPEAKER
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

/}p:; $7t! APPROVED this   I
         day of                              2026

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                         BILL LEE, GOVERNOR