Urgent Opposition to HB 754 – Stop the Public Exposure of Private Medical Data

Urgent Opposition to HB 754 – Stop the Public Exposure of Private Medical Data I am writing in outrage regarding House Bill 754, which passed the House on March 26 and is now awaiting a Senate vote. This bill would force the public disclosure of deeply private medical information belonging to transgender Tennesseans. HB 754 would require all gender clinics in Tennessee to report to the Department of Health detailed patient information including: age, sex, county of residence, medication names and dosages, surgical billing codes, provider contact information, and mental health diagnoses. This data would be compiled into an annual report and made publicly available on the Department of Health's website. Physicians who refuse would lose their license for at least six months, and clinics would face fines up to $150,000. While the bill claims to use "de-identified" data, advocates warn that the combination of age, county of residence, and detailed medical histories would make it easy to identify individuals—especially in smaller communities. As one father testified, "It would not be difficult to identify patients with all of this information, or to target and harass providers." The state does not collect this data for any other population. As Dahron Johnson of the Tennessee Equality Project stated, "any other patient in any other community would be horrified to know that that information was going out of their doctor's office and into other hands." Rep. Justin Jones asked a crucial question when his amendment to stop this public disclosure was voted down: "If we allow the government to put in public the health information of people we don't like this time because they're transgender, what if it's people who don't get vaccines next time? What stops that precedent?" I demand that you vote NO on HB 754. This bill is a dangerous invasion of medical privacy that puts vulnerable Tennesseans at risk of harassment and violence. No Tennessean should have their most intimate medical information posted online for political spectacle.