Health, Dept. of

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not specify whether hospitals are required to inform patients about the non-affecting nature of their responses on patient care and sharing with law enforcement or immigration authorities, which was included in the candidate explanation.

Healthcare Reporting Act

This bill requires hospitals accepting Medicaid to ask patients about their citizenship status and report data on hospital admissions and emergency visits by citizens, non-citizens, and those who decline to answer.

What This Bill Does

• Requires hospitals accepting Medicaid to include questions about patient citizenship status on admission or registration forms.
• Hospitals must submit quarterly reports to the Department of Health with numbers of hospital admissions and emergency department visits for patients based on their reported citizenship status.
• The Department of Health is required to create an annual report detailing the costs and impacts of uncompensated care for non-lawfully present individuals, along with other related information.

Who It Names or Affects

• Patients admitted to hospitals accepting Medicaid
• Hospitals that accept Medicaid
• The Department of Health

Terms To Know

Uncompensated care

Medical services provided without payment from the patient or insurance.

Medicaid

A government program that helps certain people pay for medical costs.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how hospitals should handle patients who decline to answer questions about their citizenship status.
• It is unclear what specific actions the Department of Health will take based on the information gathered from these reports.

Official Summary Text

By July 1, 2026 and by July 1 of each subsequent year, this bill requires
the department of health
to
submit to the governor, the
senate
speaker, and the
house
s
peaker a report of the total number of hospital admissions and emergency department visits for the previous year for which the patient or patient's representative reported that the patient
was (i) a
citizen of the United States or lawfully present in the U
nited States
, (ii) n
ot lawfully present in the United States
, and (iii) d
eclined to answer.

The report must describe information relating to the costs of uncompensated care for a person who is not lawfully present in the United States, the impact of uncom
pensated care on the cost or ability of hospitals to provide services to the public, hospital funding needs, and other related information.

This bill requires each
hospital that accepts
medicaid to include such question on a p
atient's admission or regist
ration forms
. The question must be
followed by a statement that the response will not affect patient care or result in a report of the patient's citizenship status to law enforcement or to the bureau of immigration and customs enforcement of the United St
ates department of homeland security.
Such hospitals must report, w
ithin 30 calendar days after the end of each quarter, to the department of health with the number of hospital admissions and emergency department visits with
the responses from
the previou
s
quarter.

This bill authorizes t
he department of health to promulgate rules to effectuate this
bill
.
However, the
rules
must
not require the disclosure of patient names or other personal identifying information to the department of health.

Current Bill Text

SENATE BILL 139
By Lowe

HOUSE BILL 144
By Zachary

HB0144
001193
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 33;
Title 68 and Title 71, relative to healthcare.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 68, Chapter 1, Part 1, is amended by
adding the following as a new section:
(a)
(1) Each hospital that accepts medicaid must include on a patient's
admission or registration forms a provision for the patient or the patient's
representative to indicate whether the patient is:
(A) A citizen of the United States;
(B) Lawfully present in the United States; or
(C) Not lawfully present in the United States.
(2) The provision must be followed by a statement that the response will
not affect patient care or result in a report of the patient's citizenship status to law
enforcement or to the bureau of immigration and customs enforcement of the
United States department of homeland security.
(b) Within thirty (30) calendar days after the end of each quarter, each hospital
that accepts medicaid shall submit a report to the department of health with the number
of hospital admissions and emergency department visits within the previous quarter that
were made by a patient who:
(1) Was:

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(A) A citizen of the United States or lawfully present in the United
States; and
(B) Not lawfully present in the United States; and
(2) Declined to answer.
(c)
(1) On or before July 1, 2026, and on or before July 1 of each
subsequent year, the department of health shall submit to the governor, the
speaker of the senate, and the speaker of the house of representatives a report
of the total number of hospital admissions and emergency department visits for
the previous year for which the patient or patient's representative reported that
the patient:
(A) Was:
(i) A citizen of the United States or lawfully present in the
United States; and
(ii) Not lawfully present in the United States; and
(B) Declined to answer.
(2) The report must describe information relating to the costs of
uncompensated care for a person who is not lawfully present in the United
States, the impact of uncompensated care on the cost or ability of hospitals to
provide services to the public, hospital funding needs, and other related
information.
(d) The department of health is authorized to promulgate rules to effectuate this
section. The rules must be promulgated in accordance with the Uniform Administrative
Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5. Any rules promulgated by the department

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of health to effectuate this section must not require the disclosure of patient names or
other personal identifying information to the department of health.
SECTION 2. For purposes of promulgating rules, this act takes effect upon becoming a
law, the public welfare requiring it. For all other purposes, this act takes effect July 1, 2025, the
public welfare requiring it.